Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Final report of the Ockenden review, published on 30 March 2022, what steps she is taking to increase levels of safety in (a) antenatal and (b) maternity care; and whether the recommendations of that review have been accepted.

The final report of the Independent Review of Maternity Services at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust contained 64 local actions to the trust, 15 Immediate and Essential Actions for the maternity system and three key asks for the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The Department accepted all the recommendations made in the report.

Since publication of the inquiry’s interim report in December 2020, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has updated its guidelines on antenatal care. The guideline covers the routine antenatal care that women and their babies should receive and aims to ensure that pregnant women are offered regular checkups, information, and support.

NHS England also published a Three Year Plan for maternity and neonatal services in March 2023, which brings together the recommendations from independent reviews of maternity services in Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent. The plan sets out how the National Health Service will make maternity and neonatal care safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families.

To improve maternity and neonatal care, there has also been an additional investment of £165 million per year since 2021. This is expected to rise to an additional £186 million per year from 2024/25.