Families fear maternity review 'doomed' to fail as chair named
The former diplomat Baroness Valerie Amos has been chosen to lead a rapid review into maternity care in England.
Announcing her appointment, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that she had "an outstanding record of leadership and driving change" and would "uncover the truth".
But a leading group of families say the investigation is "doomed before it has started" due to the behaviour of NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. They're urging Mr Streeting to "get a grip".
There has been no announcement of which NHS Trusts will have their maternity services investigated as part of the review. The Health Secretary said up to 10 areas could be examined.
Mr Streeting announced his intention to conduct a review of maternity care in June and had hoped the work would be underway by now and completed by the end of December.
The health secretary said more work was needed on appointing the panel of experts who will support Baroness Amos, as well as on the terms of reference of the review.
Some families have contacted Mr Streeting in recent weeks expressing huge reservations about the people the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had proposed to chair the review and sit on the expert panel.
"Wes Streeting instigated this investigation with all good intentions, but DHSC and NHS England have turned it into the same old, same old," said Emily Barley from the Maternity Safety Alliance, a group of parents whose children died due to poor maternity care.
"We now believe it will have the same effects as previous such national reviews and achieve nothing but further delay. Meanwhile, babies continue to be killed by NHS failings.
"We are also upset and angry at the way we have been treated as bereaved parents. We were promised that this investigation would be co-produced [with families], but instead we have been ignored, bulldozed and at times re-traumatised.
"While we do not criticise Baroness Amos personally, we believe this investigation is doomed before it has started. It is time for Mr Streeting to get a grip of his department.
"The only way to truly fix maternity care is through a statutory public inquiry and we hope that Mr Streeting will get on and order one now."
Source: BBC News, 14 August 2025