Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to improve state funded maternity care.

While there are outstanding examples of care in NHS maternity services, we know this is not the experience that all women have, and there are significant issues that need addressing.

My Rt. Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, recently announced an independent Investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services to understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies and families experience unacceptable care. This will produce, by December 2025, one clear set of national recommendations to achieve high quality, safe care across maternity and neonatal services.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care also announced the establishment of a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce that will use the recommendations from the Investigation to develop a national plan, with families and partners, to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.

We are also taking a set of immediate action to start delivering the changes needed.

These include actions to boost accountability and safety as part of the Government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future, and actions to hold the system to account. Specific actions include embedding a system to better identify safety concerns, rolling out a programme to all trusts to tackle discrimination and racism, and new best practice standards in maternal mortality.

Although significantly more action is required, there has been some good progress made in a range of areas. They include:

• Achieving full population coverage of Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Services for women with or at risk of mental health issues.
• Rollout to every Trust in England of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle, helping to reduce still births and pre-term birth.
• As of February 2025, having a record number of full-time equivalent midwives in post, totalling 24,991. This is over 1,400 (6.1%) more full-time equivalent midwives compared to July 2024.
• Nationally rolling out a new programme to reduce avoidable brain injuries in childbirth, following a successful pilot.