Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said “we must act now” as he announced a national investigation into maternity care in England.
The “rapid” inquiry will urgently look at the worst-performing maternity and neonatal services in the country.
Streeting has met parents who have lost babies in a series of maternity scandals at some NHS trusts and said the investigation would “make sure these families get the truth and the accountability they deserve”.
It will begin this summer and report back by December 2025.
The BBC has spent more than a decade speaking to bereaved and harmed families following poor care at Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury & Telford, East Kent, Nottingham, Leeds and a number of other NHS Trusts, gathering evidence of failing maternity services.
Making the announcement on Monday, Streeting apologised on behalf of the NHS to those families who had suffered avoidable harm.
Streeting said the review would involve the victims of maternity scandals, giving families a voice into how the inquiry is run.
He said he wants to ensure “no parent or baby is ever let down again”.
“I know nobody wants better for women and babies than the thousands of NHS midwives, obstetricians, maternity and neonatal staff, and that the vast majority of births are safe and without incident, but it’s clear something is going wrong,” he said.
“For the past year, I have been meeting bereaved families from across the country who have lost babies or suffered serious harm during what should have been the most joyful time in their lives.
“What they have experienced is devastating – deeply painful stories of trauma, loss, and a lack of basic compassion – caused by failures in NHS maternity care that should never have happened,” Streeting said.
“Their bravery in speaking out has made it clear: we must act – and we must act now.”
The investigation will consist of two parts. The first will urgently investigate up to 10 of the most concerning maternity and neonatal units, to give affected families answers as quickly as possible.
The identify of these units has yet to be decided – although it was confirmed that there will be investigations into University Hospitals Sussex and Leeds Teaching Hospitals, two trusts which families have raised concerns about. These could form part of the 10 or be separate to them, the government said.
The second part will undertake a system-wide look at maternity and neonatal care, bringing together lessons from past inquiries to create a national set of actions to improve care across every NHS maternity service.
An anti-discrimination programme to tackle inequalities in care for black, Asian and other underserved communities is also being planned.
According to the latest national data, maternal mortality rates among black women were almost three times higher compared to white women, while Asian women were twice as likely to die. The difference has decreased in recent years – but only because of an increase in the mortality rate among white women.
The Department of Health announced, in 2017, a goal of reducing maternal mortality rates by 50% between 2010 and 2025 in England. However between 2009 and 2022, maternal mortality increased by 27%. Even accounting for deaths attributed to Covid, there was still a 10% increase.
The announcement comes after a series of critical reports into maternity care over the past decade.
Dr Clea Harmer, chief executive of the baby loss charity Sands, said the national investigation was “much-needed and long-overdue”.
She said there needed to be “lasting systemic change”.
Rhiannon Davies, who lost her daughter Kate in 2009 at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, broadly welcomed the inquiry but said it should be UK-wide because the problems weren’t limited to England.
Anne Kavanagh, from Irwin Mitchell solicitors, which has represented a number of the families affected, said the scandals “all pointed to deep-rooted problems nationally” so the announcement by the government was welcome.
She said the national investigation needed to lead to decisive action as “sadly many recommendations from previous reports and investigations had not been fully implemented, missing crucial opportunities to improve patient safety and learn from mistakes”.
