Overview
- Baroness Valerie Amos released initial impressions after visits to seven of 12 trusts, saying harms persist and improvement has been too slow.
- The NHS has logged 748 maternity and neonatal recommendations in the past decade, underscoring repeated failures to enact consistent change.
- Consistent issues cited include women not being listened to or properly informed, poor basic care, and discrimination against women of colour, working-class women, younger parents and those with mental health needs.
- Testimony describes bereaved mothers placed on postnatal wards and women left bleeding in bathrooms, with more than 170 families heard so far.
- A National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce will be chaired by Wes Streeting as the inquiry opens a call for evidence in January and plans further findings in 2026, while families continue to press for a statutory public inquiry.