Fourteen NHS trusts are to have their maternity services examined over what has been described as “failures in the system”, the government has said.
The inquiries are part of a rapid review of maternity care in England that was announced in June.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said bereaved families had shown “extraordinary courage” in coming forward with issues dating back more than 15 years.
Some of the families have severely criticised the review and Streeting’s handling of it, describing the investigation as “not fit for purpose”.
The NHS trusts that will be examined are:
- Blackpool Teaching Hospitals
- Bradford Teaching Hospitals
- University Hospitals of Leicester
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals
- Sandwell and West Birmingham
- Gloucestershire Hospitals
- Yeovil District Hospital
- Oxford University Hospital
- University Hospitals Sussex
- Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals
- Queen Elizabeth, Kings Lynn
- University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay
- East Kent Hospitals
- Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital
Baroness Amos, who will chair the review, said she was committed to ensuring “the lived experience of affected families are fully heard” and that the 14 investigations would allow her “to develop recommendations… that will drive improvements across maternity and neonatal services nationwide”.
Improved maternity care may have prevented the deaths of over 800 babies lives in 2022-23, according to research by the baby loss charities Sands and Tommy’s.
Streeting opted for the rapid review instead of a national inquiry into maternity care, which many families have been calling for.
The review was due to be completed by December, but will now not report until Spring 2026. Baroness Amos says she will aim to produce interim findings around Christmas.
The review will examine the experience of families and staff within England’s struggling maternity services and investigate why the recommendations from previous maternity inquiries in Morecambe Bay, East Kent, and Shrewsbury and Telford have not led to sustained improvements.
Past inquiries have revealed issues including ignoring women’s voices, poor leadership, a failure to learn from safety incidents and a toxic culture. Yet families are still repeatedly reporting substandard care.
There will also be “particular attention” paid to examining why black and Asian families have noticeably poorer outcomes, said Baroness Amos.
The Department of Health said the trusts had been chosen based on data analysis and the views of families, as well as to ensure a geographical and demographic mix.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the focus on these trusts would “create real anxiety among women, families and staff” at the 14 trusts.
It added that the review would need to re-build a world class maternity system.
“Too many women and babies are not getting the safe, compassionate care they deserve and the maternity workforce is on its knees, with staff leaving the profession,” said the college’s president, Prof Ranee Thakar.
The strongest criticism of the review, however, comes from the Maternity Safety Alliance (MSA) – a group of families harmed by poor maternity care in several NHS trusts across England.
Having engaged in a number of meetings with Streeting in recent weeks, they said the health secretary had “broken promises” over how the investigation would be run and what it would examine, and that they had been left feeling “used”.
They are particularly critical of the decision not to investigate the role of NHS regulators, such as the Care Quality Commission and NHS Resolution, the health service’s insurance and litigation arm.
“The review seems to have already decided that all the responsibility for these 800 deaths a year lies squarely with NHS trusts and the clinicians who work in them,” said Tom Hender, who lost his son Aubrey in 2022.
“That’s just not true – the whole system is in crisis and we need a whole system approach.”
The investigation is “not fit for purpose” and will not achieve what Streeting said it would, the MSA said, adding: “It is clear that only a statutory public inquiry can end the crisis in maternity care.”
The two families who successfully campaigned for an investigation into maternity care in Shrewsbury and Telford are more positive about the review, describing it as “an important and brave first step”.
But the parents of Kate Stanton-Davies and Pippa Griffiths also said it would be “safer” if the review proceeded at a slower pace, adding that proper mental health support had to be provided to those families sharing their experiences.
“It’s not enough to have a nominal support figure in the room and an email address for follow-up,” they said in a statement.
The ongoing challenges facing maternity services were highlighted last week.
On Monday, a review of care at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS trust found that the deaths of nine babies between 2020 and 2023 could have been prevented.
Then on Friday, a report found that NHS trusts rated over half their maternity and neonatal buildings as being unsatisfactory, with 7% saying they ran a serious risk of imminent breakdown.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the doctor’s regulator, the General Medical Council, is expected to say that a “toxic” culture of cover-up in the NHS was leading to poor maternity outcomes.
Charles Massey is due to tell a conference in Manchester that “patient safety is falling victim to unhealthy culture” and that “the unthinkable – harm to mothers and their babies – is at risk of being normalised”.