In November 2021, Baby Lifeline published their third “Mind the Gap” report, an investigation into maternity training for frontline professionals across the UK between 2020 and 2021.

Baby Lifeline, a national charity which promotes the safe care of pregnant women and newborn babies, made a Freedom of Information request to all NHS Trusts and Health Boards requesting information about the provision of training for staff involved in maternity care. The responses they received led the authors of the report to find that insufficient resources remained a significant barrier to providing and attending training on the frontline, and that training provision had decreased from 2017/2018.  The biggest barrier identified was the COVID-19 pandemic.  The authors also found that training elements of national initiatives to improve safety and save lives were not being widely implemented.

The authors of the report make a number of recommendations. For example, they support a significant increase in funding to allow professionals to develop and maintain skills, and to retain staff within maternity services. They argue there should be a nationally agreed specification of ongoing training and competencies for all staff, and that more consideration ought to be given to the needs of the local population when providing training.

As a solicitor who represents children who have suffered catastrophic injury due to poor maternity care, I believe these recommendations are to be wholeheartedly promoted. Despite evidence of some improvements in maternity training leading up to Covid-19, there remains much scope for increasing the amount and quality of training.

String of government initiatives

The report notes the recent history of government initiatives in respect of maternity care. In 2015, the National Maternity Ambition was introduced to halve rates of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths and brain injuries that occurred during or shortly after birth by 2015.  In 2017, the Maternity Incentives Scheme was introduced to financially reward trusts that are taking action to improve maternity safety.

The previous Baby Lifeline report entitled “Closing the Gap” highlighted some of the issues affecting the “Maternity Training Safety Fund”, a scheme launched in 2017 to improve access to training for those involved in maternity care.  In the report, Baby Lifeline found that there was little to no standardisation in the way maternity training is prioritised, provided, funded, assessed or attended across the UK.

More recently, maternity services have faced considerable challenges in view of the consequences of COVID-19, and the prediction that many midwives are expected to leave the profession over the next year.

Due to the high number of cases I see involving avoidable harm to babies who suffer profound, life-changing injuries such as cerebral palsy, my hope is that Mind the Gap 2021 brings about positive change.