Baby Lifeline welcomes the publication of the Interim Report of the Independent Investigation into Maternity and Neonatal Services in England, and thanks Baroness Amos and her team for the depth of engagement with both families and staff.
The themes identified – capacity pressures, workforce strain, cultural challenges, racism and discrimination, and poor responses when harm occurs – are deeply concerning but not surprising. They reflect what we hear consistently from families and frontline clinicians across the country.
Our thoughts are with the families who have contributed to the report, who have engaged with the investigation panels directly, and whose experiences are shared through this interim report. Their contributions are vital in shaping this important work.
Though many families do have good experiences when using maternity and neonatal services, we particularly recognise the report’s acknowledgement that the system is not consistently delivering safe and equitable care, and that families continue to experience defensiveness and a lack of transparency when things sadly do not go to plan. The repeated cycle of recommendations without full implementation must now end.
The Future of Maternity and Neonatal Services
Reform must focus on fundamentals: safe staffing and senior clinical oversight; strong, accountable leadership; meaningful action on inequalities; impactful, high-quality staff training; and timely, compassionate, high-quality investigations that involve families from the outset.
We welcome the commitment to produce national recommendations and the establishment of a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce to oversee delivery. Implementation must be transparent, time-bound and measurable. We particularly support the need for a national, proactive response that ensures that services meet the needs of the women and babies they care for, taking into account wider societal factors.
Families have engaged with this investigation at great emotional cost. They deserve more than incremental change.
Baby Lifeline is ready to support the next phase and to work collaboratively to help deliver safe, compassionate and equitable maternity and neonatal care for every family.
We encourage families and staff to continue contributing towards the investigation:
The public call for evidence for women and families is open until 17 March 2026.
The call for evidence for staff working in maternity and neonatal services is open until 9 March 2026. Trust-specific links have been shared with senior executives in every NHS trust which provides maternity and neonatal services. All staff should be able to obtain this link from within their organisation.