NMC responds to Independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation interim report

Responding to the findings, Paul Rees MBE, Chief Executive and Registrar, said:

“When maternity care goes wrong, the impact on women, babies and families can be absolutely devastating. As Baroness Amos’ findings make clear, this is the reality for too many – including those who have suffered the scourge of racism and other forms of discrimination that persist in the sector.

“Within our actions, we’ve been mapping our standards to understand where they could be strengthened, and to ensure a renewed focus on cultural competence, unconscious bias and anti-racism. This will help to tackle the persistent, unacceptable health inequalities affecting Black, Asian and minority ethnic women.

“We’re also reviewing the NMC Code for professional standards of practice and behaviour and our early findings include a clear call from the sector for stronger behavioural standards on equality, diversity and inclusion.

“The Code review is also an opportunity to help address ongoing concerns from women and families that they’re not listened to – a finding of Baroness Amos’s review which echoes the NMC’s own insights, with Fitness to Practise data having indicated that poor communication is a recurring theme when care goes wrong.

“Baroness Amos also highlights the potentially disastrous impact of ineffective collaboration between maternity and neonatal teams. Our campaign with the GMC, ‘Good teamwork means better maternity care’ is working to address this by promoting closer and more effective teamworking

“We will reflect carefully on what more we can do as a regulator and will continue working with partners across the system to ensure safe and effective, person-centred maternity care becomes the norm for everyone, everywhere.”

Read the interim report from the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation.

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