Parliamentary Committees and Public Enquiries
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Amos maternity care report: Health Committee Chair comments
Image: House of Commons/Kate Noble
Health and Social Care Committee Chair, Layla Moran MP, yesterday said:
“My thoughts are with families, those who shared their traumatic stories during this inquiry, and those who will find it deeply upsetting to be reminded of their own tragic experiences while hearing the news today.
“Maternity failings have led to so much avoidable harm but also unnecessary cost. My Committee's Black Maternal Health report heard that £27.4 billion was spent on responding to maternity care failings between 2019 and 2024/25 – more than the cost of running maternity services in England. This money should have been spent on better care.
“After so many reports on failing maternity services, this must be the last. We must now turn the recommendations into reality, not allow them to gather dust like so many reports before. I welcome proposals for a new Commissioner and Taskforce, but without leadership at the top of Government, and the necessary funding, we will be back here again asking the same questions.”
The Health and Social Care Committee’s 2025 Black Maternal Health report secured two significant policy changes from Government:
- The Department of Health and Social Care said it would establish a ‘maternal morbidity indicator system’ to improve its data collection on maternity failings so that it can analyse data from across the country, spot patterns and understand the common causes of harm during child birth. DHSC said this system would go live by April, and that insights from the data will then be used to help NHS leaders target intervention at those who face “unequal risk”, such as black mothers, and to make interventions at hospitals that should lead to improvements and prevent future incidents.
- Matching a recommendation in the Committee’s Black Maternal Health report, in April the Government announced that anti-racism and cultural competence training would become a mandatory element of Midwifery degrees.
Further information
Original article link: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/81/health-and-social-care-committee/news/214584/amos-maternity-care-report-health-committee-chair-comments/
