Royal College of Midwives Maternity Safety Summit will address need for systemic change in maternity care

The summit follows a surge of maternity safety inquiries at health trusts across the UK and the announcement of a ‘rapid’ national inquiry into NHS maternity services in England.

The summit will take place on Wednesday 16 July in London. Chief executives and chairs of NHS Trusts, Boards and Integrated Care Boards have been invited to a day focused on addressing national maternity and neonatal care concerns. 

Sunday Times Health Editor Shaun Lintern will chair the event. He will also chair a panel on maternity care in the UK featuring Suzanne White, head of Leigh Day’s clinical negligence department, and Carla Jones-Charles, Director for Midwifery at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.

Other speakers will include Sir Jeremy Hunt MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Patient Safety, Independent Healthcare Investigator Dr Bill Kirkup CBE and Megan Bidder, the Director of Safety & Learning at NHS Resolutions.

Teams from across the UK will share their knowledge and experience on how they have resolved challenges in maternity and neonatal care, as well as advice for how solutions can be adopted by other Trusts and Boards.

The event is sponsored by law firm Leigh Day, which has a specialist team of birth injury lawyers and midwives.

Leigh Day medical negligence partner Suzanne White said:

“It is a privilege to take part in the panel discussion chaired by Shaun Lintern and to sponsor this event. For the whole of my 28-year career I have represented those who have suffered avoidable harm and seen the devastating and incalculable impact of poor maternity care on families. We are failing mothers, babies, and their families and something must change now.

"We must listen to the families who have suffered harm, they must be the focus for learning and improvement of maternity outcomes. I very much hope a collaborative event such as this, and the panel discussion will be a driver for change, improving maternity care for women and their babies.”

Gill Walton, co-chair of Progress in Partnership and Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said:

“Every woman, family and newborn should receive safe, kind and consistent care, but sadly that isn’t always the case. I know from talking to staff how much not being able to provide the quality of care they want to provide impacts them too. No-one could disagree that maternity and neonatal services are at crisis point. When the challenge is so great, it can be hard to see a way out, which is why the Progress in Partnership collaboration is hosting this summit. We want to support the senior decision-makers in NHS Trusts, Boards and ICBs to make the right choices for the women and families that rely on them for care, and the staff that are providing that care.

“There is undoubtedly a moral imperative to solving the safety crisis in maternity and neonatal care – and there is also a financial one, with £1bn paid in compensation for unavoidable harm. Imagine the good we could do if every woman and family left maternity and neonatal services whole and happy – and imagine how much more we could do if that money could be properly invested in maternity and neonatal care.”

Progress in Partnership represents more than 200,000 employees across maternity and neonatal services, with the goal to improve the quality of care provided to women and families. It is comprised of the below organisations: 

Progress in Partnership members are:

• Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
• Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
• Royal College of General Practitioners
• Royal College of Anaesthetists
• Institute of Health Visiting
• Society and College of Radiographers
• Neonatal Nurses Association (NNA)
• Royal College of Midwives