Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in implementing the three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services, published on 30 March 2023.

NHS England is making good progress in delivering its Three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services, a copy of which is attached. The plan is backed by £186 million of funding per year from April 2024, which sets out how maternity and neonatal care will be made safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families.

For example, many local maternity and neonatal systems have published Equity and Equality Action Plans to tackle disparities in outcomes and experiences of maternity care at a local level. NHS England has published new guidance for general practitioners on the 6-8 week postnatal check, all parts of England have begun rollout of perinatal pelvic health services and 39 maternal mental health services have been established.

All trusts are implementing the third version of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle which provides maternity units with detailed guidance to reduce stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

NHS England’s Digital Maternity Fund has awarded 128 funding bids to support the digitisation of maternity services across England and NHS England have established a new data taskforce to better detect and act sooner on safety issues.

Finally, to increase neonatal cot capacity, £45 million of capital was allocated across several providers to deliver an overall increase of more than 50 cots.