Recommendation 23

England remains a largely safe place to give birth and efforts to increase the safety of maternity services have led to further improvements. However, the Expert Panel overall rated the Government’s progress on maternity safety outcomes as ‘Requires Improvement’. The Expert Panel highlighted that the Government’s commitment to halve the rate of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, brain injuries and maternal deaths is not currently achieving equitable outcomes, with women and babies from minority ethnic and socio-economically deprived backgrounds at greater risk when compared to their white or less deprived peers. We acknowledge the positive steps the Department and NHS England and Improvement have taken, including the commitment to continuity of carer for 75% of women from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. We support the principles of the continuity of carer model but conclude that further work is required to ensure it can be implemented in a sustainable manner. The Expert Panel overall rated progress towards delivering continuity of carer as ‘Requires Improvement’. Continuity of carer alone is also unlikely to resolve the deep seated and long-standing inequalities persisting in maternal and neonatal outcomes.

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