Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Acknowledged
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Publish clear plan for recruiting additional midwives and obstetricians for safe maternity staffing.
Recommendation
In July 2021, we recommended that NHS England needed an additional 1,932 midwives and 496 obstetricians to operate at a level that Birthrate Plus considered safe. Rather than adding to their headcount, NHS England has lost 552 midwives between March 2021 and March 2022. This indicates a clear problem with midwifery retention. Despite requests to NHS England and the Secretary of State for a date by which these safe staffing levels would be reached, no date has been set. This failure to respond demonstrates a lack of responsibility taking and is absolutely unacceptable. Without a clear workforce plan for midwifery staffing, and the wider maternity workforce in general, the public can have no confidence that the Government or the NHS has grasped the seriousness or scale of the situation in which it finds itself. We urge the Government and the NHS to publish a plan for recruiting the recommended additional midwives and obstetricians needed to create safe staffing levels in maternity services.
Government Response Summary
The government states that the NHS has faced significant challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting staffing levels. They outline steps to improve recruitment and retention of midwives, including increasing training places, launching a recruitment campaign, providing financial support for childcare, investing in technology, and offering flexible working arrangements and wellbeing support.
Paragraph Reference:
57
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The NHS has faced significant challenges in recent years, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and this has had an impact on staffing levels across the board. However, we are committed to ensuring that the NHS has the staff it needs to deliver high-quality care. As mentioned above, we have already taken a number of steps to improve the recruitment and retention of midwives, including: • Increasing the number of midwifery training places by 26% since 2017. • Launching a new national midwifery recruitment campaign. • Providing financial support to help midwives with childcare costs. We are also working to improve the working lives of midwives, by: • Investing in new technology to reduce their administrative burden. • Providing access to flexible working arrangements. • Offering a range of health and wellbeing support. We are confident that these measures will help to attract and retain more midwives in the NHS, and that they will help to ensure that all women have access to safe, high-quality maternity care.