For the first time, caesarean section births have overtaken natural vaginal births in England, according to NHS figures for 2024-25 – a watershed moment that comes as damning reports expose systemic failures in both maternity care and police leadership.
Sharon Gaffka, a reality TV star and political activist who is expecting a baby, has chosen a caesarean. “The answer is because I want to,” she writes in the Guardian. But the decision has prompted repeated questions from others, which she says reflect a broader problem: women not being listened to in maternity care. Gaffka attended an event in parliament on birth trauma in February, where she heard women describe forceps injuries causing lifelong physical damage. One woman, after being told her baby had died, asked for a caesarean – and was refused. “Again and again, women said the same thing: ‘I wasn’t listened to,’” Gaffka recalls.
“Caesarean births overtake vaginal births in England for first time amid reports of failures in maternity care and police leadership.”
Donna Ockenden’s report on maternity services at Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust found that too many women experience a loss of autonomy and poor communication. This week, Valerie Amos’s review of maternity services across England offered an equally damning indictment, concluding that care had not adjusted to older motherhood and the rise in caesarean sections. A separate report from the charity Birthrights revealed that many women feel under pressure to have medical procedures and are denied “genuine informed choice”.
A similar reckoning is underway in policing. Matt Jukes, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, writes in the Guardian that a review by the police leadership commission covering England and Wales has reached a stark conclusion: “Leadership in policing is not consistently of a high enough standard to deliver the service the public deserves.” The review, which heard from thousands of officers, staff and members of the public, found that the way policing selects, develops and promotes leaders is “fragmented and inconsistent”. Standards, performance and opportunities vary too widely, creating a “postcode lottery”. The commission’s report also highlighted that “nepotism and bias” are rife in police leadership, as a subheadline notes.
Jukes warns that being dragged into polarized debates about whether policing is “too woke” or not progressive enough distracts from the fundamental question: “Are we building a police service capable of protecting the public, treating people fairly and keeping communities safe?”
