Former children’s commissioner to chair Wales-wide assessment of maternity and neonatal services

4 Sep 2025 12:21 PM

Former children’s commissioner Sally Holland will chair the independent assessment of all maternity and neonatal services in Wales.

The work will focus on the safety of all maternity and neonatal services and will evaluate the quality of services.

The assurance assessment is designed to provide real-time and immediate assurance about the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal services following the results of the independent review of Swansea Bay’s maternity services and concerns about other UK maternity and neonatal units.

The voices and experiences of women and families will be at the heart of this work. Their perspectives are central to understanding the quality, safety, and culture of services.

The independent panel of experts, led by Professor Holland, will provide the Health Secretary with recommendations about the future development and improvement of services.

Professor Holland will lead the maternity and neonatal assurance assessment oversight panel overseeing the assessment.

She is a leading social care academic, with expertise in child and family welfare, child protection, public involvement equality, diversity and inclusion and brings a wealth of experience from her time as Children’s Commissioner for Wales.

She will be joined on the panel by a range of experts with experience covering family engagement, obstetrics, midwifery and neonatology, all with a shared interest in improving the quality of maternity and neonatal services.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Miles, said:

This assessment will scrutinise maternity and neonatal services across Wales and provide recommendations for how they can be improved.

I’ve appointed this panel, which has a wealth of expertise within their respective fields, across national health services, to provide invaluable advice aiming to improve both patient care and experience.

We are undertaking this assessment to gain assurances about the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal services across Wales.

Professor Sally Holland said:

Maternity and neonatal services play a crucial role in ensuring safe and positive experiences for mothers, babies and families at a time in their lives when they need the best possible care.

In this assessment we will ensure that their voices and experiences are at the heart of our work, and that we identify both excellent practice and areas where improvements are urgently needed.

I am looking forward to working alongside the expert panel to make sure women, babies and families receive the best care possible, wherever they live in Wales.

The expert panel members are:

• Ken Sutton: Previously the Director for Crime and Policing at the Home Office, and Secretary to the Independent Investigation into Maternity and Neonatal Services in East Kent.
• Heidi Smoult: Began her career as a midwife, and has experience in quality review, incident investigations. Previously Chief Executive at Northampton General Hospital NHS and Deputy Chief Inspector at the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
• Sue Holden: Trained as a nurse and midwife worked clinically for 15 years and is now the Chair of Advancing Quality Alliance (Aqua). She was previously the National Director for Intensive Support at NHS England and NHS Improvement and has occupied several national improvement leadership roles in her NHS career.
• Dr Edile Murdoch: A consultant neonatologist in NHS Lothian Edinburgh and is one of the national specialty advisors for NHS England maternity and neonatal programme.
• Dr Jo Mountfield: Recently retired having been a consultant obstetrician for more than 20 years. She is a past chair of the specialty education advisory committee at the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists.
• Professor Mary Renfrew: A leading health researcher, with a clinical background in midwifery and was the lead adviser for the Nursing and Midwifery Council. She spent 40 years researching infant feeding, nutrition, midwifery and maternity care, and advised government departments and global organisations including the World Health Organisation and UNICEF.

The oversight panel will provide initial advice to the Health Secretary by the end of this year.