The Department of Health and Social Care has responded to the
report published today by the Women and Equalities Committee on
Black maternal health.
A spokesman said: “While the NHS is already one of the safest
places to give birth in the world, we are absolutely clear that
we must ensure maternity care is of the same high standard,
regardless of race.
“We’ve invested £165 million since 2021 to grow the maternity
workforce and are promoting careers in midwifery with an extra
3,650 training places per year, while every local NHS maternity
system has a plan in place to tackle disparities on a local
level.
“The Maternity Disparities Taskforce – a collective of mothers,
clinicians and key organisations – is being chaired today by
Minister to focus on how we can
eradicate disparities and improve maternity outcomes for all
mothers.”
Background:
Maternal Disparities Taskforce
- The Maternity Disparities Taskforce was established in
February 2022, to tackle disparities for mothers and babies and
reduce maternal and neonatal deaths, co-chaired by Minister
.
- The Taskforce brings together experts from across the health
system, government departments and the voluntary sector to
explore and consider evidence-based interventions to tackle
maternal disparities.
- The taskforce met three times in 2022. The sessions provided
an opportunity to bring experts together to discuss the issues
and the direct actions to develop. It facilitated a valuable
dialogue around the role of primary care in the pre-conception
health of women and provided organisations such as Birthrights UK
and the Muslim Women’s Network with the opportunity to present
their research and understanding of women’s experience of
maternity care.
- The taskforce will meet again today (18 April) to discuss
pre-pregnancy care and developing pre-pregnancy guidance.
Equity and Equality Guidance
- NHSE have published their Equity and Equality guidance for
Local Maternity Systems, supported by a £6.8million investment,
which focuses on actions to reduce disparities for women and
babies from ethnic minorities and those living in the most
deprived areas.
- From October 2022, Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems began
to publish Equity and Equality Action Plans, shaped by the NHSE
guidance, to tackle disparities in outcomes and experiences of
maternity care at a local level.
Workforce
- The NHS is also ensuring a more diverse workforce with the
Getting to Equity Programme, which provides an evidence-based
framework for Chief Nurses and Directors of Midwifery to promote
the careers of aspiring ethnic minority nurses and
midwives.
- The NHS will soon publish a long-term workforce plan to
support and grow the workforce, including midwives.
- We have invested £165 million since 2021 to grow and support
the maternity workforce and improve neonatal care.
- We are also expanding midwifery training places by 3,650 a
year and have introduced training grants of at least £5,000 a
year, resulting in a 16% increase in applications compared to
2019.
National target for disparities
- The NHS already measures progress against its equity aims for
mothers and babies through metrics described in the Equity and
Equality Guidance for Local Maternity Systems.
- Maternity outcomes are based on a wide variety of factors
that need to be considered, including social determinants such as
income and social protection, education, working life conditions
and access to amenities among many others. It would not be
appropriate or beneficial to set a hard target for a specific
level of reduction in a health disparity overtime.
- NHS England are using the Core20PLUS5 as a metric to track
changes in clinical outcomes for the groups most at risk, and to
identify local priorities, design evidence-based interventions to
address those priorities and to improve quality of care.
