In September 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that 14 NHS hospital trusts would be the focus of a rapid, independent national investigation into maternity and neonatal services.
The review is being chaired by Baroness Valerie Amos, a former UN diplomat. It has been described as both a family-centred review of the lived experience of women and babies and an urgent look at the systemic failures, which cause so many preventable tragedies in maternity care. It is hoped that the rapid review will lead to a single set of national recommendations being created, which will aim to improve safety and reduce inequalities in care across maternity services.
This short article provides an update on the progress of the rapid review since it was announced earlier this year.
Purpose and aims of the rapid review
The investigation was set up by the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting. It has three purposes:
- To hear and centre the lived experience of affected women and families.
- To review quality and safety across a sample of maternity and neonatal services.
- To identify drivers of harm and barriers to improvement — with particular attention to inequalities.
The NHS hospital trusts included in the rapid review
When the rapid review was announced, the following trusts were listed as being involved:
- Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust
- East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
- Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
- The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust
- The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
- University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
- Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
The trusts were chosen due to a range of factors, which include previous CQC maternity patient survey results and MBRRACE-UK perinatal mortality rates, and family feedback. The aim was also to include a diverse mix of hospital trusts and geographical areas to ensure that the findings of the rapid review will apply to as many parts of the country as possible.
In October 2025, the review was scaled back and The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SATH) and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust have been removed from the list.
The reasons given were due to an ongoing police investigation involving SATH, and a separate maternity inquiry has been announced in Leeds since the rapid review started.
Update from Baroness Amos
The final report from the rapid review will be published in Spring 2026.
Baroness Amos has published an interim report today, which sets out her reflections and initial impression in the first 3 months of the rapid review. She has visited 7 hospital trusts and has spoken with 170 families. What she has seen so far has been “much worse” than she expected.
Some of the women she spoke to felt that they had been blamed for their baby's death. They also said that they were not listened to, and women from Black, Asian and marginalised communities felt that they were discriminated against.
Baroness Amos also heard about a lack of cleanliness in hospitals, women not receiving help to go to the bathroom and empty their catheters, or not being given meals.
Most concerning is the report that NHS trusts “mark their own homework” in cases where babies have died, which calls into question whether families can ever trust the answers they receive without an independent investigation.
What happens next?
There has been scepticism about the review and the short timescale in which it is being conducted.
There have been several inquiries into maternity care in England and Wales over the past decade. The largest is currently taking place in Nottingham; it involves over 2500 families and the report is due to be published in June 2026.
It has been reported that the recommendations from the rapid review will be implemented next year by a new National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce.
More information about the rapid review can be found on the Government’s website here.
Quote from author. Gemma Lewis, Partner and Specialist Medical Negligence Solicitor from MDS, said “The issues that Baroness Amos has listed in her interim report are the same that we have been hearing for years. We hope that her final report and the introduction of the new Taskforce will finally bring about the changes needed to prevent avoidable harm and deaths in maternity services”.
