NHS to receive extra £3 million toward reducing brain injuries at birth

NHS maternity staff will receive a further £3 million to improve the safety of the women and babies they care for, the Patient Safety Minister has announced today.

The funding will support the RCOG, RCM and THIS Institute to deliver the second phase of a programme to reduce brain injuries at birth, which can have a devastating impact on babies and their families.

The first phase, announced in July 2021 included nearly £2 million to develop tools and training to monitor and respond to a baby’s wellbeing during labour, and manage complications with babies’ positioning during caesarean sections.

As part of the first phase, over 500 healthcare professionals and over 140 women and birth partners were consulted. Nearly all healthcare professionals surveyed agreed there should be a national approach to monitoring babies during labour, adopted by all NHS trusts.

Under today’s announcement, the RCOG, in partnership with the RCM and THIS Institute, will develop a national programme to roll out tools and training products.

It will also seek to address workplace culture factors, such as ensuring midwives and obstetricians are working together to deliver safe care. For example, the development and testing of national tools to monitor and identify any deterioration in the baby’s health during childbirth.

A strategy to improve national databases to help identify what enables excellent care, bringing together Care Quality Commission (CQC) reports and published data on national brain injury rates will also be introduced.

A ‘childbirth safety culture’ toolkit is to be developed and piloted which will include a new approach to ensure the whole system learns from good practice and mistakes.

In addition, the government previously provided almost £450,000 to the RCOG to develop a new workforce planning tool to improve how maternity units calculate their medical staffing requirements, to better support families and babies.

Due to be freely available to NHS trusts across the country next year, the tool will calculate the number of obstetricians at all grades required locally and nationally to provide a safe, personalised maternity service within the context of the wider workforce.

NHS England is investing £95 million, announced earlier this year, to deliver 1,200 midwives and 100 consultant obstetricians.