Is the Government on track to halve baby deaths by 2025?

9 April 2021

In a process being piloted by the Health and Social Care Committee, a panel of experts will begin work to rate the Government's progress on meeting its own targets to improve maternity services in England.

The targets that the Government will be assessed on include halving the rate of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths, and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth by 2025, the Committee has announced.

The targets have been provided by the Government in a letter from the Health Secretary.

Established to enhance the Committee's core task of holding the Government to account, the Expert Panel will give a Care Quality Commission (CQC) style rating to the Government's overall performance against each target, grading them from "inadequate" to "outstanding".

The Panel, chaired by Professor Dame Jane Dacre, is made up of clinical experts, patient representatives, lawyers, economists and qualitative researchers.

The Government will also be assessed on the progress it has made against its commitment that every woman expecting a child get a personalised care and support plan by 2021 and the majority see the same midwife throughout their pregnancy.

Performance on a specific target to improve maternity care for women from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities will also be evaluated as well as staffing levels on maternity wards.

Chair's comments

Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee said:

"When it comes to the safety of our maternity services, we must catch up with international exemplars such as Sweden.

"Government targets are key to driving improvement but we often don't hear when a target is not met or why.

"With the help of the fantastic Expert Panel we are trialling a new form of accountability to change this.

"We've chosen to measure performance against targets that really stand to progress the care of mothers and babies and hope the resulting analysis will encourage a positive culture of learning and smarter policy design."

Evaluation criteria

The Committee has also published detail on the criteria the Expert Panel will use in its evaluation of Government performance.

To form the overall rating for each commitment, the Panel will gather evidence on whether the Government is on track for the commitment to be met, whether it has provided enough resource to achieve the targets and whether the target has produced a positive impact for patients.

Professor Dame Lesley Regan, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is among two obstetricians and two midwives that have been appointed as additional members of the Expert Panel to aid core Panel members in the evaluation.

The Expert Panel's evaluation and final report will be distinct from the Committee's own inquiry into the safety of maternity services in England, which is examining recurrent failings in services and what action is needed to improve safety for mothers and babies.

Government commitments to be evaluated

By 2025, halve the rate of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths, brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth.

Achieve a 20% reduction in these rates by 2020.

To reduce the pre-term birth rate from 8% to 6% by 2025.

The majority of women will benefit from the 'continuity of carer' model by 2021, starting with 20% of women by March 2019.

By 2024, 75% of women from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities and a similar percentage of women from the most deprived groups will receive continuity of care from their midwife throughout pregnancy, labour and the postnatal period.

Safe staffing – "Ensuring NHS providers are staffed with the appropriate number and mix of clinical professionals is vital to the delivery of quality care and in keeping patients safe from avoidable harm."
'All women to have a personalised care and support plan by 2021'.

The chosen commitments have been selected from correspondence with the Department of Health, the Government's National Maternity Safety Ambition and with reference to other public documents such as the NHS Long Term Plan.

Further information

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