Reports & briefings

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Interpreting and translation services in maternity and neonatal care

Reports and reviews have highlighted issues with the use and quality of interpreting and translation services in maternity and neonatal care, contributing to poor outcomes and avoidable harm. We have collated and synthesised these issues, with a focus on interpreting services, and have put forward considerations for policymakers.
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Towards the best: Future maternity safety ambitions to save more babies’ lives

The National Maternity Safety Ambitions - which aim to halve the 2010 rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries and reduce the rate of preterm births from 8% to 6% - expire in 2025. We have considered what appropriate ambitions for reducing perinatal mortality and preterm birth could look like.
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Counting miscarriages in the UK

Unlike stillbirths and neonatal deaths, the number of miscarriages which occur each year in the UK are not measured or reported. This briefing note outlines what data are currently available in each nation, what improvement work is underway and what further action is required.
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Learning from past reviews and reports

The Sands and Tommy’s Joint Policy Unit reviewed 30 reports into maternity and neonatal services across the UK. For each of these reports we identified recommendations relevant to saving babies’ lives and tackling inequalities, and then grouped these into key themes.
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Information and advice given on contacting maternity triage in early labour

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.
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Investment 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.
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Saving babies’ lives 2024

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.
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Priorities for next Government

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.
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Report: Better board oversight needed to save babies’ lives

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.
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Saving babies’ lives 2023

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.
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