Three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services

This plan sets out how the NHS will make maternity and neonatal care safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families.

While the birth of a baby represents the happiest moment of many people’s lives, some families have experienced unacceptable care, trauma, and loss, and with incredible bravery have rightly challenged the NHS to improve.

The three year delivery plan setsout the benefits we expect to deliver for families through this plan. This will continue to require the dedication of everyone working in NHS maternity and neonatal services in England, who work tirelessly to support families and improve care. Most women have a positive experience of NHS maternity and neonatal services, and outcomes have improved with over 900 more families welcoming a healthy baby each year compared to 2010.

But we must acknowledge that there are times when the care we provide is not as good as we want it to be. Recent independent reports by Donna OckendenandDr Bill Kirkup,set out many examples of poor care over years. We know that families from some groups, especially ethnic minorities, have had particularly poor experiences. We must work together to change this, and this plan sets out how we will do this.

For the next three years, we are asking services to concentrate on four high level themes. Please take some time to consider these themes, what they mean to you and to the women and babies you care for.

>Listening to and working with women and families with compassion

>Growing, retaining, and supporting our workforce

>Developing and sustaining a culture of safety, learning, and support

>Standards and structures that underpin safer, more personalised, and more equitable care

Working together, we can make a real difference.