Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of understaffing in maternity units on levels of bullying, as highlighted in the #Saynotobullyinginmidwifery report published on 12 November 2023.

The National Health Service takes bullying and harassment very seriously. All employers across the NHS should have a robust policy on bullying, outlining how it should be handled, and the support available to staff.

In June 2023, NHS England published their Equality Diversity and Inclusion Improvement Plan which set out a series of high impact actions, including the requirement for NHS organisations to review data by protected characteristics on bullying, harassment, discrimination, and violence, and to develop plans to improve staff experience. This includes promoting environments where staff feel they are able to speak up and raise concerns. NHS England has also developed an NHS Civility and Respect programme to tackle bullying and harassment in the NHS, and to create a culture of civility and respect.

Since 2021, the Government has invested an additional £165 million a year to improve maternity and neonatal care, which will rise to an additional £186 million a year from 2024/25, with part year effect in 2023/24. This will improve the quality of care for mothers and babies and increase the number of midwifery posts available.

NHS England has established a nursing and midwifery retention programme, supporting organisations to assess themselves against a bundle of interventions aligned to the People Promise, and to use the outcome of this to develop a high-quality retention improvement plan locally.

A key part of our strategy is the Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme to support perinatal leadership teams to develop the conditions for a positive culture of safety and continuous improvement. It aims to improve the quality of care by enabling leaders to drive change with a better understanding of the relationship between leadership, safety improvement, and safety culture.

£2.8 million has been invested into the Perinatal Culture and Leadership Development Programme, which will support multi-professional teams from across maternity and neonatal services, to take time out together. It will create space for team and individual reflection and re-design, with a common purpose.

In January 2021, a new £500,000 fund for Maternity Leadership Training was announced for NHS maternity and neonatal leaders. The training aims to equip leaders with a range of skills and knowledge to address poor workplace culture and facilitate collaborative working between nurses, doctors, midwives and obstetricians.