The appointment of Donna Ockenden to chair the Leeds Maternity Services Independent Review represents another significant development in efforts to address long‑standing failures in NHS maternity services.
This announcement follows Baroness Amos’s recent interim report, which highlighted serious and persistent concerns around safety, accountability and learning in maternity and neonatal care across the country. Stewarts previously examined the implications of Baroness Amos’s interim findings and why it is vital that lessons are properly learned in our earlier article.
Leeds Maternity Independent Review with local impact on maternity services
Donna Ockenden brings substantial experience to the role, having previously led a major review into maternity services. Her appointment reflects the scale of the challenges facing NHS maternity care, many of which have been experienced by families supported by Stewarts’ Leeds‑based Medical Negligence team.
The scope and duration of the Leeds Maternity Services Independent Review are extensive, reflecting the widespread nature of the concerns raised. For families affected by maternity and neonatal failures, the central question is whether this investigation will result in lasting improvements in patient safety and standards of care at a local level.
Repeated maternity care failures across the NHS
Despite multiple national reviews over the past two decades, many of the same issues continue to arise in maternity medical negligence claims, including cases involving avoidable child brain injury. These cases are not confined to one area of the country and continue to be seen across England, including in Leeds and the wider Yorkshire region.
The repetition of similar failures over many years suggests that learning has not been consistently embedded into maternity services. As a result, families continue to experience harm that should be preventable. This further review, therefore, presents a crucial opportunity to drive meaningful reform across NHS maternity and neonatal services.
Legal perspective from Stewarts’ Leeds maternity negligence claims team
Guy Pomphrey, medical negligence partner in Stewarts’ Leeds office specialising in child brain injury cases, comments:
“The appointment of Donna Ockenden is a clear statement of intent about the seriousness and importance of the Leeds maternity services inquiry. She brings extensive expertise, having already led a major review in this area. The scale and breadth of this work will nonetheless demand sustained focus and commitment.
“For affected families, the key question is whether this inquiry will finally lead to real change. The same failures we see in medical negligence cases today were present 20 years ago, which shows that lessons have not been learned and meaningful reform has not followed. With the momentum of the recent Amos interim review, Donna Ockenden’s appointment and the scope of this Leeds inquiry, there is now a genuine opportunity for maternity services to reflect upon and undergo the fundamental change that families have been waiting for.”
Ongoing scrutiny of maternity and neonatal care
Stewarts’ Leeds‑based maternity and child brain injury team will continue to monitor developments in the Leeds Maternity Services Independent Review closely. We will assess whether its findings lead to tangible improvements in patient safety, accountability and standards of care for families across Yorkshire and the rest of the UK.
Making a birth injury claim
Our Medical Negligence team specialises in helping families whose children have been injured during birth, supporting them through the entire legal claim process.
In this short film, Katherine Fitter and Alexandra Bennett outline the team’s specialist approach and why, at Stewarts, we only handle a small number of complex cases, allowing us to build strong relationships with our clients and their families to support them throughout their compensation claim.
Stewarts specialises in injuries caused by inadequate medical care during childbirth, such as mismanaged labour that led to oxygen deprivation for the baby, and issues following caesarean sections.
