NHS maternity services in England are failing women and babies “on a scale that shames our society”, an independent inquiry has found, prompting the government to promise new national standards and 1,000 temporary midwifery posts – but families have condemned the report’s key recommendation as “fundamentally dangerous”.
The rapid review by Baroness Valerie Amos, ordered by then health secretary Wes Streeting last summer, uncovered “unacceptable racism and discrimination” embedded throughout the system. Too many women were not being “listened to, heard or believed”, the report said – a finding that Health Secretary James Murray admitted reflected a “culture of coverup”.
“Damning review finds NHS maternity services fail women and babies on a 'scale that shames society', with racism and cover-up culture.”
Speaking in the House of Commons, Murray said the report painted a “bleak picture” of failings across maternity services, spanning pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care. “Too often families have been sneered at, disbelieved, blamed and lied to,” he said. “We know from review after review that wrongdoing is being covered up and that bullying towards staff who try to sound the alarm is rife.”
The government’s response includes new national standards for emergency maternity care, to be published this week, and an extra £41m to upgrade “rundown” maternity and neonatal facilities. But the creation of a national maternity commissioner – one of the report’s key recommendations – sparked immediate criticism.
Emily Barley, whose daughter Beatrice died at Barnsley hospital in 2022, told the BBC the idea was “fundamentally dangerous” and placed too much power in the hands of one person. The Birth Trauma Association described the report as a “huge missed opportunity”, with chief executive Dr Kim Thomas saying staff views were given too much weight compared to patients’ experiences. “It is devastating to see that so little of what women told Baroness Amos is reflected,” she said, noting that injuries caused by forceps deliveries and the impact of post-traumatic stress on women and their partners were not mentioned.
Murray said the 1,000 temporary midwifery posts would be created this year, but could not confirm a timeline for appointing the new commissioner, telling BBC Breakfast his team would “move as quickly as we can”. Maternity investigator Donna Ockenden, who led a recent investigation into failings in Nottingham and has been appointed to future reviews in Leeds and Sussex, said she was “not really convinced that one person can take on the system”. “I wouldn’t be prepared to take on a job and do it half-baked or badly,” she told the BBC.