A national investigation into NHS maternity services has been launched by the UK government following a series of maternity scandals.
The new rapid investigation is intended to provide truth to families suffering harm, as well as driving urgent improvements to care and safety, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
It follows health secretary Wes Streeting meeting families who have lost babies and comes amid the ongoing investigations at some NHS trusts into poor maternity care.
It is expected that the investigation will report back by the end of the year.
DHSC said it is also launching a “National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce”, which will be chaired by Streeting.
The health secretary said that “up and down” the country, “maternity units are failing, hospitals are failing, trusts are failing, regulators are failing” and there was “too much passing the buck”.
Speaking at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) conference in London on Monday, Streeting said bringing life carried risk but “that risk is considerably higher than it should be because of the state of the crisis in our maternity and neonatal services”.
“Within the past 15 years, we’ve seen appalling scandals that blew the lid on issues ranging from care, safety, culture and oversight – Shrewsbury, Telford, East Kent, Nottingham.
“The last government responded with initiatives like Better Births in 2016 and the maternity transformation programme. But despite improvements on some metrics, inequalities in maternal and neo-natal outcomes have become more visible, not less. The rate of late maternal deaths has been consistently rising.
“Babies of black ethnicity are twice as likely to be stillborn than babies of white ethnicity, and black women are still two to three times more likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after birth than white women. Tragically, that gap is closing slightly, but partly because more white women are dying in childbirth.”
Streeting apologised on behalf of the NHS, having met families in Nottingham and around the country whose children have died or been injured.
Senior midwife Donna Ockenden is currently examining how hundreds of babies died or were injured in the care of Nottingham University Hospitals Trust.
Streeting said: “All of them have had to fight for truth and justice, they describe being ignored, gaslit, lied to, manipulated and damaged further by the inability for a trust to simply be honest with them that something has gone wrong.
“I want to say publicly how sorry I am, sorry for what the NHS has put them through, sorry for the way they’ve been treated since by the state and sorry that we haven’t put this right yet, because these families are owed more than an apology. They’re owed change, they’re owed accountability and they’re owed the truth.”
He said risk is “considerably higher” than it should be for women and babies because of a “crisis” in maternity and neo-natal services.
He said giving birth carries risk, but “that risk is considerably higher than it should be because of the state of the crisis in our maternity and neonatal services.”
The new investigation will consist of two parts.
The first will investigate trusts of greatest concern at the moment, including Leeds, Gloucester, Mid and South Essex and Sussex, “to hold them to account for improvement”, Streeting said.
He added: “I’m currently discussing with Leeds families the best way to grip the challenges brought to light in that trust by their campaigning, reports in the media and the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report, and I’ll be ordering an investigation into nine specific cases identified by families in Sussex…”
The second part of the investigation will be a “system-wide” look at maternity and neonatal care, uniting lessons from past maternity inquiries to create one “clear set of actions” designed to improve national NHS care.
A new digital system will be rolled out to all maternity services by November to flag potential safety concerns in trusts.
An anti-discrimination programme to tackle inequalities in care for black, Asian, and other communities is also being launched.
Sir Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England, said: “Despite the hard work of staff, too many women are experiencing unacceptable maternity care and families continue to be let down by the NHS when they need us most.
“This rapid national investigation must mark a line in the sand for maternity care – setting out one set of clear actions for NHS leaders to ensure high-quality care for all.
“Transparency will be key to understanding variation and fixing poor care – by shining a spotlight on the areas of greatest failure we can hold failing trusts to account.
“Each year, over half a million babies are born under our care and maternity safety rightly impacts public trust in the NHS – so we must act immediately to improve outcomes for the benefit of mothers, babies, families and staff.”
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