Expert Panel: evaluation of the Government’s commitments in the area of maternity services in England

The Health & Social Care Committee has established and commissioned a politically impartial panel of experts to conduct an evaluation – independently of the Committee – of the Government’s commitments in different areas of healthcare policy. The Expert Panel will produce a report after each evaluation which will sent to the Committee to review. The final report will include a CQC-style rating of the progress the Government has made against achieving its own commitments. The Expert Panel will first evaluate the progress the Government has made against its own commitments in the area of maternity services in England. The Expert Panel is chaired by Professor Dame Jane Dacre, and is comprised or core (i.e. permanent) members and subject specialists. Core members of the Expert Panel are: Sir Robert Francis QC; Dr Charlotte Augst; Meerat Kaur; Professor John Appleby; Anita Charlesworth; and Professor Stephen Peckham. Maternity specialist members of the Expert Panel are: Professor Soo Downe, Professor of Midwifery Studies at University of Central Lancashire; Professor Alexander Heazell, Director of Tommy’s Stillbirth Research Centre, University of Manchester; Sarah Noble, Associate Director of Midwifery at South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust; and Professor Dame Lesley Regan, Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St Mary’s Hospital, London. An overview of the Expert Panel’s work is available here: https://houseofcommons.shorthandstories.com/health-and-social-care-committee-expert-panel/ Further information on the Expert Panel is set out in the Health & Social Care Committee Special Report: Process for independent evaluation of progress on Government commitments (5 August 2020).