Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to implement the recommendations of MBRRACE-UK's report entitled Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care: Lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2019-21, published in October 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The recommendations made in the Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK’s (MBRRACE-UK) report have informed a series of work programmes to improve maternity safety. This includes ongoing work delivered through NHS England's Three-Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services, which sets out how care will be made safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families. This is supported by an additional investment of £186 million a year to improve maternity and neonatal care, compared to 2021, on top of an additional £35 million over three years, from 2024/25 to 2026/27.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that NHS England facilitates the dissemination of the findings of the maternal, newborn and infant clinical outcome review programme delivered by MBRRACE-UK.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The maternal, newborn, and infant clinical outcome review programme, delivered by Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK), forms part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme, which is commissioned and managed on behalf of NHS England by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership.
MBRRACE-UK publishes annual data and surveillance reports on their website, and holds a national learning event to disseminate information and audit findings. NHS England supports this approach and reviews all audit recommendations after publication with a range of stakeholders. NHS England’s Three-Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal services also highlights how NHS England will use MBRRACE-UK’s reports to monitor trends and themes at both a national and local level.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
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.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Institute for Fiscal Studies report The short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start on educational outcomes, published on 9 April, which found that access to a Sure Start centre in early years increased the early identification of a special educational need or disability and reduced the need for an Education, Health and Care Plan in later years, what steps they are taking to incorporate lessons from the Sure Start programme in their (1) Family Hubs policy, and (2) Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department welcomes the latest research from the Institute of Fiscal Studies on the impact of Sure Start. The family hub model builds on what was learned from Sure Start as well as on wider external evidence of the long-term benefits of early intervention. The model includes at its core the Start for Life offer with a prominent focus on babies and young children, encouraging engagement with the very youngest and their parents and including targeted services for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It enables early identification of additional needs through integrated and connected service offers and provides funding for workforce training to better identify and respond to need in a co-ordinated way.
Family hubs bring together services for children of all ages and so respond to the needs of the whole family. The government is investing approximately £300 million across 75 local authorities to embed the family hub approach and enhance Start for Life services across the country for families with children aged 0-19 years, and or up to 25 years for those with SEND. On 10 January 2024, the government announced that every one of the 75 local authorities in the family hubs and Start for Life programme have now opened family hubs, creating a welcoming place where families can be connected to a wide range of services.
The department has developed guidance for participating local authorities. The Programme Guidance includes expectations on the support available to families who have children with SEND, in line with the recommendations in the SEND and alternative provision (AP) green paper. This includes staff in the family hub being knowledgeable about local SEND services and able to connect families to appropriate support – this could include for example SEND-appropriate parenting programmes, peer support for parents, short breaks, support for siblings or specialist health services. The Programme Guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide.
Last year, the department also published its SEND and AP Improvement Plan to outline its plans to ensure children and young people across England get high-quality, early support wherever they live in the country. This includes new national SEND and AP standards which will help families understand what support every child or young person should be receiving from early years through to further education.
The department is also funding training of up to 7,000 early years special educational needs co-ordinators who will learn how to identify and assess SEND and implement effective support so that children get the early support they deserve at the right time.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how she is targeting health prevention services to support children who live in poverty.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department delivers programmes to support the most vulnerable children and families, and reduce health inequalities. The Government published the Best Start for Life: A Vision for the 1,001 Critical Days, in March 2021. This sets out six action areas for improving support for families during the 1,001 critical days, to ensure every baby in England is given the best possible start in life, regardless of background.
The Government is investing an additional £300 million to improve support for families though the joint Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Education Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. It is implementing many elements of the Best Start for Life Vision, delivering a step change in outcomes for babies, children, and their parents and carers in 75 local authorities in England, including those with high levels of deprivation. The Government has commissioned two in-depth independent evaluations of the programme.
The Healthy Start scheme helps to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children aged under four years old from very low-income households. The latest Healthy Start data was published on 28 March 2024, with an uptake of 66%. Healthy Start now supports approximately 366,000 beneficiaries.
In November 2022, NHS England published Core20PLUS5, an approach to reducing health inequalities for children and young people at both a national and system level. The approach defines a target population cohort, and identifies five clinical areas requiring accelerated improvement, which are asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, oral health, and mental health. Where possible, indicators in the Child and Maternal Health Profile provide a breakdown by the index of multiple deprivation, which is available at the following link:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/child-health-profiles
Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has had discussions with NHS England on ensuring that (a) reviews, (b) investigations and (c) complaints processes relating to maternity services include consideration of the (i) impact of ethnicity on the care received and (ii) potential role of (A) racism and (B) discrimination.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England, along with the devolved administrations and the Crown Dependencies, funds Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries to collate ethnicity data, in relation to all perinatal and maternal deaths across the United Kingdom. They publish annual surveillance reports which provide comparators of rates of mortality for women and babies from different ethnic groups. They also publish confidential enquiries, assessing care provision along the whole care pathway, to identify areas requiring improvement.
The Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme provides independent, standardised, and family focused investigations to provide learning to the health system. This includes analysis of data to identify key trends, and collaboration with system partners to escalate safety concerns.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of maternity staff leaving NHS employment on services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department works with NHS England on a regular basis to review the numbers of staff working in National Health Service maternity services, and to identify any issues which could potentially impact services.
Growing, retaining, and supporting the maternity workforce to ensure that there are staff with the capacity and the right skills to deliver safe, personalised, and equitable care for women and babies is a key theme of NHS England’s Three Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services. NHS England is also delivering a nursing and midwifery retention programme, supporting organisations in assessing themselves against a bundle of interventions aligned to the NHS People Promise, and to develop high-quality local retention improvement plans.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the five recommendations made in the report by the First 1001 Days Movement, A Manifesto for Babies, published on 19 March; and whether they intend to respond to each recommendation.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is strong evidence that the 1,001 days from pregnancy to the age of two years old set the foundations for our cognitive, emotional, and physical development. Investing in this critical period presents a real opportunity to improve outcomes and tackle health disparities by ensuring that thousands of babies and families have improved access to quality support and services. The Government is therefore already taking forward a range of actions in line with recommendations in the report by the First 1001 Days Movement to ensure that every baby gets the best start in life.
For example, in March 2021, the Government published The best start for life: a vision for the 1,001 critical days, a copy of which is attached. This vision sets out six action areas for improving support for families during the 1,001 critical days to ensure every baby in England is given the best possible start in life, regardless of background.
The Government is also investing approximately £300 million to improve support for families though the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. The programme is implementing many elements of the Best Start for Life Vision and is delivering a step change in outcomes for babies, children and their parents and carers in 75 local authorities in England, including those with high levels of deprivation. Many local authorities without funding have also chosen to implement elements of the vision.
The programme funding package includes £10 million to enable five local authorities and their partners to pilot innovative early years workforce models, with the aim of improving the access, experience and outcomes of babies, children, and families, and supporting the capacity and job satisfaction of the workforces involved.
To support new parents, Statutory Maternity Pay is paid by employers to qualifying employed women for a maximum of 39 weeks, the first six weeks of which are paid at 90% of the women’s salary followed by 33 weeks at the lower of either the standard rate or 90% of the woman’s average weekly earnings. For those who cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance may be available. This is a benefit paid by the Department for Work and Pensions to eligible women and is intended for those who cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay. The standard rate of maternity pay is reviewed annually.
Paternity Leave arrangements enable employed fathers and partners, including same sex partners, who meet the qualifying conditions to take up to two weeks of paid leave within the first eight weeks following the birth of their child or placement for adoption. The Government has recently announced changes to make Paternity Leave and Pay more flexible for working families from April 2024. This includes allowing fathers and partners to take their leave and pay at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption of their child.
A Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme is also available, giving working families much more choice and flexibility about who cares for their child in the first year, and when.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure effective collaboration between early intervention services for babies with neurodevelopmental conditions.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Healthy Child Programme is the national public prevention and early intervention health framework for babies, children, and young people. Health visitors are specialist community public health nurses who lead the Healthy Child Programme from preconception to five years old. They deliver evidence-based interventions, which include five mandated reviews: antenatal; approximately two weeks after birth; six to eight weeks after birth; at one years old; and at two to two and a half years old. These include reviews of development and growth. Where a baby or child has special education needs or vulnerabilities, health visitors work in partnership with other professionals and families, to respond to health and care needs.
The Government is also investing approximately £300 million to improve support for families though the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. The programme is implementing many elements of the Government’s Best Start for Life Vision which was published in March 2021, and is delivering a step change in outcomes for babies, children, and their parents and carers in 75 local authorities in England, including those with high levels of deprivation. Many local authorities without funding have also chosen to implement elements of the vision.
Family hubs offer support to families from conception to two years old, and provide services for children of all ages, from zero to 19 years old, or zero to 25 years old for families with children who have special educational needs and disabilities. Family hubs are a way of joining up locally to improve access to services, the connections between families, professionals, services, and providers, and prioritise strengthening the relationships that carry us all through life. They bring together services for children of all ages, with a great Start for Life offer at their core.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to raise awareness of what can be done to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Prevention and early intervention are paramount to preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and we want to ensure that every family receives the support and guidance they need during the early days of parenthood.
Health visitors have an important role supporting child health, wellbeing, and parenting confidence. They support families in improving health literacy, managing minor illnesses, and preventing accidents, including promoting safe sleeping for babies. Health visitors can also work with early years services to ensure that safer sleep messages are promoted across early years services. Further information is available at the following link:
The Department is also working alongside NHS England and the National Child Mortality Database (NMCD) to increase the data bank on SIDS, to increase our evidence base, understanding, and inform actions and policy.