Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) the transition to a midwifery-led Continuity of Carer model is properly resourced and supported and (b) women who are pregnant again after the death of a baby are able to access it as a priority.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement have committed to midwifery-led continuity of carer, so that it becomes the default model of care for women using maternity services across England by March 2023. NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided local maternity systems with £90.05 million in service development funding from 2018 to 2021 to fulfil transformational objectives, including implementing continuity of carer models. An additional £96 million was announced earlier this year in response to the emerging findings from the Ockenden Report, the majority of which will be invested in additional midwives and obstetric capacity.
Upcoming NHS England and NHS Improvement guidance will include advice on the implementation of maternal medicine-focused continuity of carer teams, which could be used to accommodate women deemed higher risk due to previous loss, whilst still offering continuity of the midwife caring for them.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the transition to a midwifery-led continuity of care model is accessible to women who are pregnant following the death of a previous baby.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement have committed to midwifery-led continuity of carer, so that it becomes the default model of care for women using maternity services across England by March 2023.
Upcoming NHS England and NHS Improvement guidance on continuity of carer will include advice on the implementation of maternal medicine-focused teams, which could be used to accommodate women deemed higher risk due to previous loss, whilst still offering continuity of the midwife caring for them.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the support and advice offered to women who experience miscarriages in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We have not made a recent assessment.
The Women’s Health Strategy call for evidence sought to examine women’s experiences of the whole health and care system, including female-specific issues such as fertility, pregnancy and baby loss, which is a core area of women’s health. We are analysing responses on miscarriages to ensure that the strategy reflects what women identify as priorities.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to record the national rate of miscarriages.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We have funded SANDs, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity, to work with other baby loss charities and Royal Colleges to produce and support a National Bereavement Care Pathway to reduce the variation in National Health Service bereavement care. The pathway covers a range of circumstances of a baby loss including miscarriage.
The Women’s Health Strategy call for evidence sought to examine women’s experiences of the whole health and care system, including issues such as fertility, pregnancy and baby loss. We are analysing responses on miscarriage to ensure that the strategy reflects what women identify as priorities. We will consider recording all miscarriages as part of this work.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the care for women who experience a miscarriage.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We have funded SANDs, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity, to work with other baby loss charities and Royal Colleges to produce and support a National Bereavement Care Pathway to reduce the variation in National Health Service bereavement care. The pathway covers a range of circumstances of a baby loss including miscarriage.
The Women’s Health Strategy call for evidence sought to examine women’s experiences of the whole health and care system, including issues such as fertility, pregnancy and baby loss. We are analysing responses on miscarriage to ensure that the strategy reflects what women identify as priorities. We will consider recording all miscarriages as part of this work.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the UK being ranked by UNICEF 34 out of 41 OECD countries for family friendly policies; and if he will take urgent steps to support people on parental leave during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
We have a strong tradition of supporting working families in the UK and our parental leave arrangements are generous and flexible.
We go much further than the EU minimum and employed women in the UK have access to up to 52 weeks of Maternity Leave , 39 weeks of which are paid. Where the mother does not intend to use her full maternity entitlements, she can share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay with her partner , subject to the parents being eligible for Shared Parental Leave and Pay.
In 2020 we introduced Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay to support parents who suffered the loss of a child. We will also legislate to create a new Neonatal Leave and Pay entitlement to support new parents whose baby needs to spend time in neonatal care, as soon as parliamentary time allows.
The Government is sympathetic to the position that new parents have found themselves in during the pandemic. We have taken steps to support new parents by passing emergency legislation which ensures that parents who are furloughed during the period that is used to determine entitlement to Maternity, Adoption and other family-related statutory pay do not lose out. This legislation ensures that entitlement to pay and the rate of pay that parents receive is based on their normal earnings, not their furlough pay.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the mental health needs of bereaved families who have experienced a miscarriage are supported within NHS mental health provision.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Every part of the country has perinatal mental health services in place and we remain committed to improving and expanding these services. By 2023/24, at least 66,000 women in total with moderate to severe perinatal mental health difficulties will have access to specialist perinatal mental health services. The new services will integrate maternity, reproductive health and psychological therapy for women experiencing moderate-severe or complex mental health difficulties directly arising from, or related to, the maternity experience, including perinatal loss.
The national bereavement care pathway brings together information, tools and resources to support the provision of high quality care for women and their families who experience pregnancy or baby loss, as well as linking to online learning for all healthcare professionals and staff who are involved in the care of a woman who experiences perinatal loss. This is available at the following link:
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the variation in quality of maternity and bereavement services throughout the NHS.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme covers all maternity and neonatal services across England. The programme has been working with trusts to support frontline staff to create the conditions for continuous improvement, a safety culture and a national maternal and neonatal learning system to reduce unwarranted variation in outcomes and care experiences, and provide a high quality healthcare experience for all women, babies and families across maternity and neonatal care settings in England.
The Government also funded Sands, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity to work with other baby loss charities and Royal Colleges to produce and support the roll-out of a National Bereavement Care Pathway to reduce the variation in the quality of bereavement care provided by the National Health Service.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on publishing the report on registration of pre-24 week stillbirths as legislated for in the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc) Act 2019.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
‘The Independent Pregnancy Loss Review: Care and support when baby loss occurs before 24 weeks gestation’ was commissioned by the Department. The purpose of the review is to consider the impact on families of the current threshold of 24 weeks gestation before being able to formally register a miscarriage if they so wish, and whether it would be beneficial to look at legislative options to amend existing primary legislation to allow parents to register a miscarriage if they wish to do so.
Good progress has been made on the review, but work was delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Work has resumed and the review now plans to report to the Secretary of State for Health in the new year.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available for (a) women and (b) partners who have experienced pregnancy loss or baby loss; what steps his Department is taking to improve (i) funding for, (ii) provision of and (iii) access to support services for those who have experienced such losses; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on access to support services for pregnancy loss and baby loss for (A) women and (B) their partners.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government has funded the Stillbirths and Neonatal Death charity (Sands) to work with other baby loss charities and Royal Colleges to produce and support the roll-out of a National Bereavement Care Pathway. The pathway covers a range of circumstances of a baby loss including miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy for medical reasons, neonatal death and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
The Government announced £4.2 million of additional funding to mental health charities and charities providing bereavement support during the COVID-19 pandemic and is taking a cross-Government approach to assess what is needed to help ensure that families and friends of those deceased get the support they need.