My pledge to fix maternity failings for grieving families
E ach week, the NHS welcomes about 10,000 babies into the world. The birth of a child should be the most joyful moment a parent ever experiences. But while the vast majority of births are without incident, for too many families in this country that moment has ended in tragedy — and heartbreak that never goes away.
Over the past year I have met parents whose lives were forever changed by failings in NHS maternity care, including grieving parents who have lost babies. I have listened to them describe moments that should have been filled with love, replaced instead by trauma, confusion and unbearable loss.
What they have experienced is more than unacceptable — it is a profound failure of the system that is supposed to care for them. And for too long, those failures have been met with silence and stubborn defensiveness.
These families deserve justice. And they deserve to know that no other parent will have to endure what they have been through.
That is why I am launching a national, independent and urgent investigation of NHS maternity and neonatal care, to begin this summer and conclude in December, alongside a set of immediate actions to begin improving safety and compassion.
This investigation will focus first on the worst-performing services in the country, bringing long-awaited answers to hundreds of parents. But it will also take a broader look at the entire maternity system, bringing together the findings of past inquiries into one clear national set of actions to raise standards.
I am also establishing a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, which I will chair, made up of experts, staff, campaigners and representatives of the families, to help me drive improvement across the NHS.
The taskforce will answer some of the most pressing issues the families have put at the top of the list, such as how we ensure that women and their partners are always listened to when they raise concerns, and whether we are getting better at spotting when things go wrong in units.
Alongside this, we will start to tackle the deep inequalities facing black, Asian and disadvantaged women, and roll out a new digital system to all maternity services to flag potential safety concerns in trusts and support rapid action.
There is a long road ahead and I will not pretend change will come overnight. But I can promise this: I will not look away. And I will not allow the system to hide from families any longer.
Wes Streeting is secretary of state for health and social care
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