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The Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigation (MNSI) programme responds to the latest annual national maternity survey by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Sandy Lewis, Programme Director of the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigation Programme, said:
“I am pleased to see the positive reflections from those surveyed about a number of aspects of their care. It is encouraging that the number of people asked about their mental health throughout pregnancy and after birth has increased and that satisfaction levels remain particularly high in antenatal care. These results are promising and show that there is a real drive and capacity to take the steps forward to improve experiences for women and birthing people.
“While the results show some improvements in some areas of care, the long term decline in positive feedback across maternity services over the past five years should raise alarm bells for the system.
“The subgroup analysis shows the high number of disparities among different demographic groups and further highlights the inequalities we know exist for some women and birthing people, and their babies. Recognising and addressing health and social factors which may be a barrier to receiving care that supports an equitable outcome is crucial if we are to move forward.
“Understanding and addressing health equity barriers in maternity care is one of our top priorities. To support this mission, we developed the Health Equity Assessment and Resource Toolkit (HEART) and the Health Equity Warning Score (HEWS). These innovative tools are designed to identify and analyse health and social inequalities within our investigations, ensuring equity is at the core of our work.
“With the launch of our new Health Equity Assessment and Resource Toolkit (HEART), and Health Equity Warning Score (HEWS) from December 2024, all new MNSI investigations will incorporate the HEART toolkit and HEWS score, reinforcing our commitment to understanding and addressing health inequalities in maternity care.
“We will continue to provide our support and advice through our investigations and pinpoint areas for improvement to help ensure all women and birthing people who use maternity services have the positive experiences of maternity care they want and deserve.”
Notes to editors:
About MNSI
The Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations (MNSI) programme is part of a national strategy to improve maternity safety across the NHS in England.
All NHS trusts are required to tell us about certain patient safety incidents that happen in maternity care. This is so that we can carry out an independent investigation and where relevant, make safety recommendations to improve services at local level and across the whole maternity healthcare system in England.
Throughout investigations we work closely with the families, NHS trusts and staff involved. We do not place blame on individuals or investigate individual members of NHS staff.
Our programme was established in 2018 as part of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) and is now hosted by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).