Classification: Official
Publication reference: PRN01359

To:

• Integrated care boards (ICBs):
  • chief executives
  • chairs
  • chief nurses
  • medical directors
• Provider trust:
  • chief executives
  • chairs
  • chief nurses
  • medical directors

cc. 

• Local maternity and neonatal system (LMNS) chairs/leads
• Neonatal operational delivery network (ODN) leads
• Regional:
  • directors
  • chief nurses
  • medical directors
  • chief midwives
  • lead obstetricians

Dear colleague,

Maternity and neonatal services – listening to women and families 

The importance of listening to women, and taking appropriate action in response, has again been brought into sharp focus this week following publication of the report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Birth Trauma. 

We are grateful to the APPG on Birth Trauma for giving a voice to mothers and families who have experienced birth trauma. There is no single solution to reducing risks before, during and after birth, and the needs of each mother, baby and family affected by a traumatic birth will be different, and local services have important roles to play in preventing traumatic births, and better supporting those who experience them. We urge all Boards, and those that work in maternity and neonatal services to read the report and how its themes and recommendations inform existing local plans to implement the three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services.

The Priorities and operational planning guidance 2024/25 makes clear that the implementation of the Three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services continues to be a key priority for integrated care boards (ICBs), Trusts and primary care.  The vast majority of women, babies and families receive safe care, and the plan commits the NHS to making maternity and neonatal care safer, more personalised, and more equitable, and prioritises listening to women and families to achieve this. 

Trust boards and ICBs have a duty to ensure regular, robust oversight of maternity and neonatal services in line with the perinatal quality surveillance model.  In particular, if not already done so, boards must review the commissioning and implementation of existing commitments for which you have received funding for implementation in 23/24, and which will help address recommendations in the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Birth Trauma report:

• perinatal pelvic health services, in line with the national service specification
• maternal mental health services, in line with national guidance
• availability of bereavement services 7 days a week
• local maternity and neonatal system (LMNS) equity and equality action plans, working across organisational boundaries

Since 2020 there has been a contractual requirement to offer women a maternal postnatal consultation with a GP, and in December 2023 we issued ‘what good looks like’ guidance in support of this. We therefore ask ICBs to review local delivery of this standard.

NHS England is providing an additional £3 million of funding for maternity and neonatal voice partnerships (MNVPs) in 2025/26 and 2026/27, with a part-year effect of £1.2 million in 2024/25. This funding is part of a £35 million package of additional investment in maternity and neonatal services over three years that was announced in the Spring budget. ICBs should already be providing appropriate levels of funding and resourcing to MNVPs, and therefore the additional funding recognises the central role MNVPs play in helping to improve care as outlined in Maternity and neonatal voices partnership guidance, and the need to strengthen the neonatal parental voice component. This letter confirms allocations for 2024/25 (Annex 1), which have been calculated on a per unit basis. The funding will be available for ICBs to draw down by June.

We look forward to continuing to work with you to improve maternity and neonatal care.

Yours sincerely,

Dame Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer, NHS England.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, National Medical Director, NHS England.
Dr Emily Lawson DBE, Chief Operating Officer, NHS England.

Annex 1: Integrated care board allocations for maternity and neonatal voice partnerships