NMC listening to families affected by maternity failings in Leeds

In Leeds on Saturday 26 September, NMC senior leaders including Paul Rees MBE, Chief Executive and Registrar, listened to the experiences that families shared, and spoke with them about the regulator’s role, including how concerns about the fitness to practise of individual nurses, midwives and nursing associates can be raised.

At the event, the NMC shared its latest resources, for families, about what to expect if they contact the regulator with a concern – and which other organisations might also be able to support them.

This includes a dedicated resource for fathers and partners – recognising that for many families, having a baby is a shared experience where they play an important role during pregnancy, birth and after birth.

As the Leeds review and the similar review in Sussex get under way, the regulator is taking forward lessons from its engagement with families during the recent maternity review in Nottingham. It is committed to taking a family first approach – being accessible, maintaining a visible presence, listening carefully to families and explaining clearly its role.

This includes offering surgeries – giving families the option to meet with regulators individually to share their experiences and, where they wish to do so, receive further information and support about raising concerns. The NMC will listen to the views of families about how it engages with them throughout the review, to ensure the regulator maintains its family first approach.

This approach is also reflected in the NMC’s new Midwifery Regulation Strategy for 2026-30, which puts the experiences of women and families at the heart of the regulator’s work. The strategy commits the regulator to continuing to learn from national maternity and neonatal reviews, and sets out how it will identify risks earlier and take effective regulatory action to protect the public.

The regulator’s work to strengthen safe, equitable care for all women, babies and families also includes the ongoing embedding of its anti-racism principles for midwifery and nursing education and practice. The development of the principles was driven by the Black maternal health crisis, which leads to Black, Asian and minority ethnic women and their children being more likely to die, or suffer harm during pregnancy, childbirth or after birth.

Paul Rees MBE, Chief Executive and Registrar at the NMC, said:

“Maternity care failures can be absolutely devastating for those families affected, and that has been the case for far too many families in Leeds. The start of Donna Ockenden’s review is a vital step towards ensuring that a torch is shone on what has been happening in maternity services there.

“We’ve learned lessons from our engagement with families in the recent inquiry in Nottingham, and we’re carrying those lessons into our work in Leeds as well as in Sussex – being accessible and maintaining a visible presence for families.

“We’re grateful to the families who have already spoken to us openly, and we’ve heard their expectation that regulators must be proactive, visible and responsive. Our new Midwifery Regulation Strategy will ensure that their experiences inform not only our engagement with the review but also our wider work to achieve safe, equitable and compassionate maternity care.”

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