National maternity investigation launched
On 23 June 2025, the Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, announced a rapid national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services.
What we know
The investigation will undertake an urgent look at the worst-performing services in the country, and the entire maternity system. Past reviews and their findings will be examined in order to bring together one clear set of national actions “to ensure every woman and baby receives safe, high-quality and compassionate care.”
The investigation is intended to be rapid, with working beginning in the summer and report back by December 2025. It will be co-produced with clinicians, experts and impacted families feeding in.
The investigation will consist of two parts. The first will urgently investigate up to 10 maternity and neonatal units where the most concerning issues have already been highlighted. The aim from part one is to give the affected families answers as quickly as is possible.
The second part will be a system-wide look at maternity and neonatal care, bringing together the findings and recommendations of previous inquiries. Several issues facing maternity care will be addressed, including a lack of compassionate care, concerns over safety and inequalities that women form Black, Asian and deprived backgrounds face.
Immediate action
In announcing the rapid national investigation, the government also announced that a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will be established. This will be made up of a panel of experts and families. A new digital reporting system will also be rolled out across all maternity services by November to flag potential safety concerns in trusts. It is hoped that this will support rapid, national action.
What we don’t yet know
The Government has promised to take action to improve accountability; it is not clear at this stage how it that will be achieved.
The rapid national investigation will begin by looking at up to 10 maternity and neonatal units giving rise to the most concern; the Secretary of State has said that over the next month, NHS Chief Executive Jim Mackey and Chief Nursing Officer Duncan Burton will meet with these trusts which include Leeds, Sussex, Mid and South Essex and Gloucester. More details of the identified trusts is likely to follow these meetings, along with details of what action will be taken at each organisation and how this will be fed into a national plan.
The report will be co-produced by clinicians; at this stage it is unclear what role their will be for individual trusts and clinical staff to feed into the investigation, and what additional information / data trusts will be asked to produce.
A national set of actions will be produced; how these will be implemented and measured is only something that will be known in time, along with questions around additional funding and sanctions.
How Hempsons can help
Our specialist healthcare teams can support you with all aspects of inquiries, investigations and patient safety improvement work.
Our experienced inquiries team have extensive experience of statutory and non-statutory inquiries such as the Manchester Arena bombing, the unlawful killing of three men in Reading, and the infected blood scandal. We continue to support NHS trusts and healthcare bodies in the UK COVID-19 Inquiry, including Modules 3, 4, and 7.
Hempsons’ risk and investigation specialists assist trusts in understanding their organisation’s risk profile, investigations, and producing factual, analytical and data driven reports. Our investigation service, led by experienced healthcare lawyers, helps organisations understand their risk profile and review processes to promote a learning culture. We provide diagnostic quality, safety, and learning reports with actionable recommendations for policy, procedural, systemic, and cultural changes aimed at measurable improvements.