Round-up of maternity and neonatal patient safety initiatives

 As a leading healthcare firm Weightmans supports World Patient Safety Day 2026. This World Patient Safety Day we review recent key developments in maternity and neonatal patient safety which remain key priorities for the NHS with a round-up of how NHS Resolution and Weightmans are contributing to this to help reduce the harm caused to mothers, babies and families.

Government and NHS England

NHS England’s 10 Year Health Plan and Medium Term Planning Framework include a commitment to key actions to improve the quality of maternity and neonatal services across England.

As part of this commitment, the government launched the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation, led by Baroness Amos, in August 2025 to drive improvements in patient care and safety following a series of meetings between the Secretary of State for Health and bereaved families. Whilst the Investigation’s interim report published in December 2025 acknowledged that some families have received “high-quality, compassionate care” it also identified around nineteen key themes impacting on safety and learning. The Investigation’s final report, published in June 2026, set out national recommendations to secure improvement and reduce inequalities in the delivery of maternity and neonatal services.

Many of the themes identified by the National Investigation were also reflected in the Ockenden report on maternity care Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, also published in June this year.

To implement the recommendations of the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation, the government has established the National Maternity Taskforce, whose expert panel includes Megan Bidder, Director of Safety and Learning at NHS Resolution. Publication of the Taskforce’s action plan is currently awaited.

In the meantime, NHS England announced an urgent 10-point plan for maternity and neonatal services, together with the requirement that trusts report on 25 maternity deliverables by 23 September 2026.

Over the last year, the NHS has also introduced a range of other measures to improve NHS care for mothers and babies, including £11 million funding for trusts to improve maternity triage services, institution of the Maternity Outcomes Signal System, a standardised maternal care bundle and national roll out of Martha's rule to maternity services.

NHS Resolution

NHS Resolution recognises the importance of improving maternity and neonatal patient safety and this is one of its key priorities for learning from claims. NHS Resolution’s strategy from 2025 to 2028, called Resolution through collaboration, focuses on using data to drive learning and deepen its contribution to maternity and neonatal safety improvements. NHS Resolution’s Early Notification scheme also continues to support families affected by brain injury at birth and enables earlier investigation of patient safety concerns to accelerate learning and practical improvements.

NHS Resolution’s Maternity (Perinatal) Incentive Scheme (MIS) is a financial incentive program designed to enhance maternity and neonatal safety within NHS trusts by providing financial incentives to provide safe care. The scheme requires trusts to demonstrate they have effective systems in place to support high‑quality maternity and neonatal care.

NHS Resolution recently published an evaluation of its Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS) setting out the key findings from years one to six of the initiative, including that the MIS has provided clarity for trusts on where best to focus efforts to improve maternity and neonatal care. It launched year 8 of the MIS in March this year, which was refined for 2026/27 to include a streamlined set of six core safety actions to reduce the administrative burden and enable trusts to focus on improved outcomes.

In July, NHS Resolution delivered a national webinar for trusts and clinicians to learn from OASI and GBS claims within the NHS, bringing together learning from NHS Resolution’s claims work and national perspectives.

This year NHS Resolution’s Safety and Learning Team also published its report relating to early onset Group B Streptococcal disease in neonates to facilitate learning form this type of claims.

Weightmans

Weightmans fully supports NHS Resolution’s work in relation to patient safety. Our Maternity Matters webinar in July this year, hosted by Rachel Kneale, client relationship partner for NHS Resolution, focused on claims and inquests arising from home births and ‘births outside of guidance’ - key areas of concern for patients and trusts alike. We were delighted to be joined by Victoria Wilkins, registered midwife and Associate Safety and Learning Lead (North) at NHS Resolution, who presented on consenting patients. Alison Brennan, legal director and our patient safety lead, and Nichola Lennon, partner in our regulatory health team, also spoke about maternity claims and inquests. If you would like to watch the recording of the webinar, you can request access by emailing communications@weightmans.com.

As part of our campaign on learning from maternity and neonatal care claims we have also released podcasts relating to common failures in claims relating to CTG monitoring, neonatal hypoglycaemia and escalation in maternity care. Alison Brennan and Sonia Morgan, legal director and our Early Notification scheme lead, attended the Baby Lifeline National Maternity Safety Conference in September 2026 to encourage engagement with our podcasts.

Collaboration is key

Significant improvement in maternity and neonatal care will only be achieved if everyone continues to play their part to work together in identifying patient safety concerns and to take action to prevent recurrence. That is why Weightmans will continue to work closely with NHS Resolution to communicate learning from claims to help trusts deliver high quality care now and drive improvement for the benefit of women, basis, families and staff in the future.