Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of NHS neonatal units have parental accommodation available.

Not all maternity hospitals are currently able to offer adequate accommodation for families. This is due to the historic undercapitalisation across the National Health Service, as highlighted by the Darzi Report.

All trust boards should review their estate data and seek assurance that all healthcare premises from which they are delivering maternity services are of appropriate standard. This should include a review of community-based maternity services, which were not in the scope of the estate survey. In instances where the estate is not of appropriate standard, trust boards should ensure mitigating action is being taken accordingly.

As a first step towards improving our maternity and neonatal estate, we are investing over £100 million through the 2025/26 estates safety fund to address critical safety risks on the maternity estate, enabling better care for mothers and their newborns.