Our Ambitions for 2024 – Part Two

2024 seems to be speeding by and it feels both like both five minutes and many months since we laid out our ambitions for 2024 back in January. Since then, much has changed – we have a new government with new agendas and ambitions and we published our National Learning Report into maternity safety to name just two things that have encouraged us to relook at our ambitions for 2024.

While the focus of MNSI will always be patient safety, to achieve this there are many pieces of the puzzle we must get right in order for us to be certain that maternity and neonatal safety and learning remains the priority in England.

With all this in mind, the next five months of 2024 will see us focus on three key areas:

1. Thematic learning: we hold a significant amount of information about maternity and neonatal safety, and we’re in a privileged position to access more detailed information to fully understand the ‘why’s’ behind patient safety events. Over the next year we want to build on the work we have already undertaken in this area and challenge the possibilities of how this can inform the safety landscape within maternity care. This presents us, our partners and stakeholders with opportunities for collaboration to strengthen our emerging thoughts and support perinatal services to inform and prioritise the improvements they are making.
2. Equality, diversity and inclusion: Equality, diversity and health equity data consistently demonstrates that women/ birthing people from a ethnically diverse background have a poorer outcome than those from a white background. We want to build on the intelligence we already hold and understand why these outcomes occur, exploring what prevents the care women receive from being aligned to their individual needs and those of their families.
3. Explore opportunities to maximise our impact: we will be exploring opportunities to expand our areas of work which will maximise our impact on patient safety and the care of mothers, birthing people and their babies. There are aspects of maternity safety which are touched on during safety investigations, but not fully explored as they remain outside of the current scope of our work. Expanding our ability to look at a broader scope of maternity care will allow us to look more holistically at maternity care in England while maximising the safety of women, birthing people, their babies and families.

The final five months of 2024 look set to be as busy as ever but these clear ambitions for the remaining months will ensure we are able to build on our work as the leading maternity and neonatal safety investigation programme in England while maximising the impact for mothers, birthing people and their babies.