An exploratory review of maternity and neonatal services

HSSIB’s introductionThis report is a summary of information HSSIB collected during an exploratory review of maternity and neonatal services in spring 2025. This exploratory review involved meetings with 17 stakeholders and a review of 35 safety concerns submitted to HSSIB and one report published in 2021 by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), the precursor organisation to HSSIB. Although we consider this information to be limited in its breadth and depth compared to a full HSSIB investigation, the exploratory exercise did provide evidence to support the direction any future investigations might take.On 23 June 2025, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced a national investigation into maternity and neonatal services. The intention is that this investigation will be rapid, system wide and report in December 2025. In light of this announcement, we paused our intention to progress investigations into maternity and neonatal services, recognising that it would be prudent to wait for the outcome of the national investigation. However, we considered that the information we collected during the exploratory review was important and could assist the national investigation. Therefore, we decided to publish this summary report.