Health Secretary Wes Streeting has launched a comprehensive national investigation into NHS maternity care in England, aiming to confront deep-rooted failings that have caused trauma, loss, and distress to numerous families over the past 15 years. Announced at a Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists conference in London, the probe marks a determined effort to address systemic problems exposed by multiple high-profile scandals, including those in Morecambe Bay, East Kent, Shrewsbury and Telford, Nottingham, Leeds, Gloucester, Mid and South Essex, and Sussex.

Streeting expressed profound regret on behalf of the NHS, apologising to families whose children have died or been seriously injured during birth. He acknowledged the widespread struggles these families have faced in seeking truth and justice, describing a culture marked by neglect, misinformation, a lack of compassion, and institutional silence. “They’re owed more than an apology. They’re owed change, accountability, and the truth,” he said, emphasising the urgent need to restore trust in maternity services.

The inquiry’s first phase will target the ten worst-performing maternity and neonatal units, with senior NHS leaders, including NHS chief executive Sir Jim Mackey and chief nursing officer Duncan Burton, set to meet with these trusts within the coming month to demand rapid improvements. The second phase will conduct a system-wide review, synthesising lessons from past investigations into a single, coherent national strategy for reform, ensuring stringent actions are clearly laid out to improve care standards by December 2025.

Streeting has also established a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce composed of experts and bereaved families to steer these reforms. This initiative aims to ensure that changes are informed by those directly affected by the failings of maternity care and embedded with expert oversight, reflecting the seriousness of the crisis. Dr Ranee Thakar from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists underscored the necessity of decisive action rooted in overwhelming evidence from historic maternity care failures.

The NHS faces stark challenges: a recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) report highlighted how 65% of maternity units are deemed unsafe for childbirth, with nearly half of NHS trusts rated as requiring improvement or inadequate in safety. Issues including staff shortages, delays in care, unrecorded serious incidents, and insufficient life-saving equipment have become alarmingly commonplace. The CQC’s Nicola Wise warned against normalising these failures and urged urgent action to support staff in delivering high-quality care to mothers and babies.

Recognition of the regulatory difficulties underlines the complexity faced by maternity services. Streeting has criticised the CQC and other patient safety regulators as “not fit for purpose,” citing significant delays in inspections and report publications for failing maternity units. For instance, the average time for the CQC to declare a unit inadequate has increased from 75 days pre-pandemic to 213 days, with some hospitals waiting nearly 300 days—for example, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital—before a report was issued. These delays sometimes lead to additional months of inadequate care continuing before interventions are implemented.

The Health Secretary has vowed to overhaul these regulatory bodies, aiming to streamline the “complex web” of oversight organisations and ensure that whistleblowers feel protected and empowered. He has pledged that NHS managers who silence staff raising concerns will be removed and barred from working in the NHS again. Streeting highlighted the endemic issue of whistleblower suppression contributing to systemic failings in maternity care.

Financially, the burden of maternity failings is immense. Last year, the NHS paid out £2.8 billion in compensation claims, 41% of which related to maternity cases, underscoring the human and economic cost of these failures.

Maternity and midwifery leaders, including the Royal College of Midwives, have backed the investigation. Gill Walton, the College’s chief executive, described the current maternity services as “at, or even beyond, breaking point,” calling for urgent systemic attention to protect both families and the dedicated healthcare professionals working under intense pressure.

Streeting’s announcement follows public outcry and campaigning from bereaved families, notably in Leeds, where parents’ testimonies of unsafe care have been described as “shocking and chilling.” Though no immediate review was committed specifically to Leeds, Streeting reiterated his determination to fix maternity services nationwide, condemning the unacceptable failures that have denied families the care they deserve.

The health secretary has expressed his personal anxiety over ongoing issues, stressing that problems identified in specific trusts are symptomatic of risks present throughout the NHS system. He linked these challenges to wider pressures, including midwife shortages, which in some areas exceed recruitment rates, exacerbating the crisis.

This investigation marks a pivotal moment in a long-awaited response to some of the most harrowing patient safety failures in recent NHS history. The dual approach of targeting the worst units and driving system-wide reform aims to rebuild public trust, improve care quality, and most importantly, prevent any recurrence of the devastating tragedies that have haunted British maternity care for years.

📌 Reference Map:

Source: Noah Wire Services