On 23 June 2025, the UK’s Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting announced that there will be a “rapid” national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services in England. The launch of this urgent investigation is a pivotal step towards improving maternity care in the UK and holding failing trusts to account.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s announcement follows a series of high-profile systematic failures in the NHS care of mothers and babies. Notably, there is an ongoing investigation into the serious injuries and deaths related to maternity care given at the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust.

Mr Streeting commented that “maternity units are failing, hospitals are failing, trusts are failing, regulators are failing” and that bereaved families are owed more than an apology, they are owed change, accountability and truth.

What does the investigation entail?

The investigation will be a two-stage process:

• Firstly, there will be an urgent investigation into up to 10 of the most concerning maternity and neonatal units in England, including University Hospitals Sussex and Leeds Teaching Hospitals. The primary focus is to give affected families answers as urgently as possible.
• Secondly, there will be a system-wide look at maternity and neonatal care. This will combine lessons from past inquiries to create one clear, national set of measures to improve the level of care across every NHS maternity service in England.

Importantly, a panel of clinicians, experts and parents will be instrumental in this investigation as a National Maternity and Neonatal Task Force. This is following recent private meetings between Mr Streeting and families who have been harmed or bereaved by these failures.

A key purpose is for parents to be at the centre of improving maternity care standards and for their voices to be heard.

When will the investigation be launched?

The investigation will begin this summer and is due to conclude by December 2025.

Katherine Fitter, a partner in the Medical Negligence department, comments:

“The Health Secretary’s announcement that a rapid national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services will soon be underway is overdue, but encouraging. It will be welcomed by families whose babies have been harmed or have died as a result of negligent medical care.

There have been unacceptable systemic failures for many years and transformative change is needed to stop further preventable harm to mothers and babies. Greater transparency and accountability have been promised and we hope that this is delivered soon, so that lessons can be learnt from past mistakes and further injury and heartbreak can be avoided.

We are pleased to hear that the views of parents, experts and clinicians will be listened to within this inquiry and that a National Maternity and Neonatal task force is introduced. It is crucial that, in comparison to previous investigations, there will be faster and more effective implementation of the ensuing recommendations.”

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