In 2021-22, the Maternity Consortium undertook a project to understand the experiences of women and birthing people in accessing maternity services and any barriers they may have faces in receiving the care they need.
We are undertaking work to identify what is needed to make progress on key themes from previous reports and reviews into the safety of maternity and neonatal services.
We have undertaken analysis of information found on NHS Trust websites under their guidance for contacting maternity triage in early labour to assess consistency in advice.
Research by the Sands and Tommy’s Joint Policy Unit has found concerning levels of variation across the advice for women and birthing people given by NHS trusts in England on contacting maternity triage in early labour – highlighting the need for consistent guidance around contacting triage, as well as clear information about the care people are entitled to.
The single word title of the Labour manifesto was ‘change’. There are few areas where transformative change is more needed than in maternity and neonatal services.
We assessed commitments from the Government to increase funding for maternity and neonatal services in England, highlighting how these remain significantly below the level needed to support transformative improvements in these services.
This is the second Saving Babies’ Lives Progress report published by the Joint Policy Unit. The report summarises the latest data and shares updates on the work that we have delivered over the past year.
Ahead of the 2024 general election, joint with Sands and Tommy’s, we set out what we believe the next government must do to deliver safer maternity and neonatal services, so that fewer babies die and inequalities in loss are eliminated.
The safety and quality of maternity and neonatal services are the responsibility of the board in each NHS Trust. However, board oversight has been highlighted as an issue in successive inquiries and reviews.
Our inaugural progress report brought together data from different public sources for the first time to show the extent of pregnancy and baby deaths across the UK, and explore the systemic issues facing the health system that need to be addressed to make progress.