CQC blog - Exploring the barriers and opportunities to improve maternity safety with staff on the frontline (19 July 2022)

Summary

This blog by Victoria Vallance, Director of Secondary and Specialist Care at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) discusses how engagement with frontline NHS maternity staff has informed the CQC's inspection approach, and is being used to support improvements in care.

She highlights that recent reviews and reports highlight recurring concerns that affect maternity safety: the quality of staff training, poor working relationships between obstetric and midwifery teams, and a lack of robust risk assessment. She then goes on to talk about an event held by the CQC that brought together staff from NHS maternity services across England to discuss the challenges that they face and seek their views on what needs to change to overcome them.