Regulator responds to concerns raised by bereaved families in Nottingham

The review – which is assessing failures in the maternity services provided by the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUHT) – is the largest assessment of failings in NHS history, in terms of the number of cases and families involved.

More than 2,400 families in Nottingham have suffered devastating loss, serious injury and lasting trauma. The review is looking at which harms in Nottingham were preventable.

On Saturday 21 March, NMC Chief Executive and Registrar Paul Rees MBE, met with many of the families involved in the Nottingham maternity review at a meeting hosted by Donna Ockenden.

Paul, who took up the substantive role of Chief Executive and Registrar in July 2025, having previously been interim CER, apologised to the families, once again, for the way the NMC has worked with them and the Ockenden review team, in the past.

He acknowledged that the regulator had been too slow to respond to the situation in Nottingham – and said that a number of changes had been made following the families’ early feedback, which had not been acted on swiftly enough.

In line with the NMC’s commitment to greater candour, he revealed that, in total, the NMC currently holds 91 open cases relating to maternity care at NUHT. Of these, 75 are at Screening, the initial assessment stage of the process. A further 15 are currently undergoing full investigations. One case has been investigated and is at the Adjudications stage – where a determination will be made about whether the individual’s Fitness to Practise is impaired.

He also disclosed that for the midwife whose case is at the Adjudications stage, there is an Interim Order in place – meaning that they are currently unable to practice while Fitness to Practise proceedings are ongoing.

The cases are being managed by the restructured Sensitive and Complex Casework Team – a specialist team that the NMC has invested in to ensure more timely resolution of sensitive cases, including those connected to Nottingham.

The NMC is ensuring that there is now earlier clinical advice and public support advice for these cases – as a result the cases are progressing more quickly.

Paul also revealed that, based on feedback from the Nottingham maternity review team, the NMC has agreed to look at new intelligence from the team, to see whether there is the need for it to open any further Fitness to Practise cases.

Based on the feedback from the families, the NMC held six face-to-face case surgeries attended by 70 affected families, to enable them to discuss their experiences with the regulator – enabling it to explore the best way forward for each case. As a result of the surgeries, 54 Fitness to Practise cases were opened.

Also based on families’ feedback, and with support from Donna Ockenden, the NMC has produced a new leaflet, to support women and their families in what to do if something in their maternity care goes wrong.

The regulator has shared the leaflet with NHS Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) teams and national organisations to enable them to inform families about the NMC and its role.

Based on feedback from the families, the regulator also had discussions with students on the midwifery education course at the University of Nottingham, to ask them what their experience was of learning both at the institution and in practice. The feedback was largely positive.

Donna Ockenden, Chair of the independent review of maternity services at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said:

“I’ve seen a different NMC over recent months and so have the families, who have told me how pleased they are with the progress the regulator is now making. There’s a lot to do but the NMC are making very good progress.

“The NMC of the past was too slow to recognise the depth and seriousness of the issues in Nottingham but that is being turned around now.

“It’s clear that the new NMC leadership are actively committed to listening to families and responding to their feedback. We can see they are making changes to how they engage with families as families communicate with them.”

Paul Rees MBE, Chief Executive and Registrar, said:

“In the past, we were too remote and too difficult to access. We’ve apologised to the affected families in Nottingham about this.

“We’re steadily turning this around.

“We’ve listened to feedback from the families and have established surgeries for them to discuss their cases with us.

“We know that we need to leave no stone unturned as we work at greater pace to understand what’s happened in each case.

“We’re committed to being visible and accessible to families who have come to devasting harm, and playing our part in providing the answers they deserve about what happened in Nottingham and why.”

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