Baroness Valerie Amos has today released her Interim Report as part of her Independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation which states that maternity and neonatal services in the NHS are not working.
Whilst previous NHS reviews and investigations into maternity services have tended to be localised and focused on a particular hospital or NHS Trust, Baroness Amos’ investigation is national in scope and is taking a whole system view – looking at people, culture, organisation, processes, infrastructure and the wider factors impacting on the care delivered by maternity and the neonatal services.
The purpose of her investigation is to understand the context of and identify urgent systemic issues that need to be addressed – including why the standard of care can vary so much across the country, how safe care can be replicated and why previous recommendations have not been fully implemented.
To date, Baroness Amos has met with over 400 family members and heard evidence from over 8,000 people.
She has identified 6 factors that she believes could be contributing to pressures on maternity and neonatal services including:
- Capacity pressures
- Culture and leadership
- Racism and discrimination
- Poor responses and a lack of accountability when things go wrong
- Quality of facilities
- Workforce issues
Many of her concerns are issues that anyone dealing with birth injury claims will have heard before – families being disregarded and not listened to during pregnancy and labour, a lack of kindness and compassion, a fragmented healthcare system with inadequate facilities, reluctance on the part of the NHS to admit mistakes and say sorry when things have gone wrong, and a loss of trust which is compounded when the system fails to respond quickly and appropriately.
Baroness Amos echoes comments that we often hear – that time and time again families are reaching out because they don’t want the same thing to happen to another family – and yet they are seeing the same failures repeated time and time again and query why failings identified in previous NHS reviews and investigations don’t seem to have been fully addressed.
The next phase of the investigation will include an analysis of previous recommendations. The aim is to produce, by June 2026, one set of national recommendations to drive improvements in maternity and neonatal services.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will then chair a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce which is intended to design and deliver an Action Plan based on Baroness Amos’ recommendations. That step can’t come soon enough.
Baroness Amos’ call for evidence from families who want to share their experiences during pregnancy remains open until 17 March 2026.
How Moore Barlow can help
If you or your loved ones have been affected by substandard care during pregnancy, labour and/or the neonatal period, and you want a confidential and free initial discussion about the merits of any legal claim you may have, please do reach out to discuss your medical negligence claim with Moore Barlow.
