Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 3
Third Report - Black maternal health
Published 18 Apr 2023
Paragraph 37
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)
We note that, at the time of writing this report, the Maternity Disparities Taskforce has not met for nine months. If it continues, it must have tangible metrics to measure its success. The Government should publish measures for gauging the success of the Maternity Disparities Taskforce. It should commit to publishing the dates of meetings in advance, and the minutes of the meetings soon after. The Taskforce should update this Committee on a six-monthly basis on the progress the Taskforce has made to tackling maternal health disparities.
From: Women and Equalities Committee, Third Report - Black maternal health (HC 94), paragraph 37, 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".