Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 2
Third Report - Black maternal health
Published 18 Apr 2023
Paragraph 30
Addressed to Government Equalities Office
Women and Equalities Committee Black maternal health All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Continuity of carer is a cornerstone of the Government and NHS commitment to deliver safer maternity services for all women. It is simply not possible to implement it safely, however, due to the considerable staffing shortages across maternity services. A fully staffed, properly funded maternity services workforce is fundamental to delivering safe, personalised care to pregnant women and new mothers, and a prerequisite to rolling out any measures to combat inequalities. Government funding falls short of the £200–350 million per annum recommended by the Health and Social Care Select Committee in July 2021 and endorsed by the final Ockenden report in March 2022. The Government should commit to increasing the annual budget for maternity services to £200–350 million from the next financial year.
From: Women and Equalities Committee, Third Report - Black maternal health (HC 94), paragraph 30, 18 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 30 June 2023 (deadline 18 June 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the report and states it remains "committed to tackling maternal inequalities", but declines several of the Committee's specific recommendations while pointing to existing NHS England work.
- On the Maternity Disparities Taskforce, it is "happy to update the Committee on a six-monthly basis", but "will not publish minutes" or measures for gauging the Taskforce's success, giving reasons relating to openness of discussion and flexibility.
- On a cross-government target and strategy for eliminating maternal health disparities, it does "not believe a target and strategy is the best approach" and will instead measure progress through the Equity and Equality Guidance metrics.
- On training, NHS England "will carry out a scoping exercise" on co-ordinating the proposed review; on the maternal morbidity indicator, the Department of Health and Social Care "is considering how this can be delivered", with no timescale given.
- On Taskforce membership, it considers the current membership "sufficient" and does not commit to reserved seats. It states that all local maternity systems "will publish their equity and equality action plan by 31 March 2024".