Gloucestershire included in National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation.

In June 2025, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced a national investigation into maternity and neonatal care and a taskforce to share learning and best practice will also be established.

In August, Baroness Valerie Amos was announced by the Health and Social Care Secretary as the lead of the national maternity and neonatal investigation.

The Trust has been included as one of 14 Trusts that will be part of the investigation, and we will work to ensure improvements already made continue and to implement further best practices.

We fully support this important review and are committed to working openly and constructively with the investigation team.

The investigation will consist of two parts. The first will investigate the 14 maternity and neonatal units and identify ways to improve care and safety.

The second will undertake a system-wide look at maternity and neonatal care, bringing together lessons from past inquiries to create one clear, national set of actions to improve care across every NHS maternity service.

Trusts were included in the review based on a range of factors. These include data and metrics designed to capture individual elements of a trust’s outcomes and its patients’ experiences, as well as ensuring a diverse mix of trusts, including:

• Trust type;
• Geographic coverage;
• Provision of care to individuals from diverse backgrounds, including consideration of social, economic and racial inequalities;
• Family feedback;
• Three trusts – Shrewsbury and Telford, East Kent Hospitals and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay – have been chosen where previous investigations have taken place and learnings from these will be incorporated in this new investigation.

By taking this approach, the investigation can capture experience and learning from a wide range of Trusts, ensuring the findings are relevant across the NHS.

Recent maternity data published by NHS England shows our Trust continues to perform well against key national safety indicators and in the past two years we have been focusing heavily on improving governance, electronic access to maternity notes, and enhanced risk assessments, as well as extensive recruitment of midwives and obstetricians.

However, we know that there is more to do and we are absolutely committed to completing the improvement journey we have already started.

We want to reassure our patients, staff, and the wider community that we remain dedicated to transparency and continuous improvement.

We are listening to the voices of families and staff and see this review as a valuable part of our journey to ensure every woman, birthing person, baby, and family receives the care they deserve and we will continue to engage openly with our communities throughout this process.

We understand this may cause concern for some in our local community and we are keen to offer support and to answer any questions people may have.

Our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is available to all on 0800 019 3282 or email ghn-tr.pals.gloshospitals@nhs.net.