The Government has today launched a new Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, with the RCM’s Chief Executive, Gill Walton appointed as a member.
The taskforce, chaired by the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, will bring together families, senior NHS leaders, royal colleges, academics and campaigners.
The taskforce’s aims are to tackle deep-rooted inequalities and deliver action on the recommendations of Baroness Amos’ investigation into maternity and neonatal services in England.
Helen Cheyne, Professor of Midwifery at the University of Stirling and RCM member will also join the taskforce.
Gill and Helen’s membership on the taskforce ensures that midwifery expertise and the voice of members will be represented at the highest level.
Gill said: “We are pleased the RCM has a seat on this taskforce because for too long, decisions about maternity services have been made without properly involving the people who deliver that care every day.
“The scale of what needs to change is significant. Midwives are working an estimated 100,000 unpaid hours every week simply to keep services running. Almost ninety per cent say their units are not safely staffed. Morale is critically low after years of investigations that have not delivered the systemic change our members and the women they care for desperately need.
“Women and families deserve better and so do the midwives who deliver for them every single day. The RCM are committed to pushing hard on safe staffing, workforce planning, midwifery education, leadership and investment in maternity estates.”
The Secretary of State will chair the first taskforce roundtable next week, with the initial priority to agree its terms of reference and hear from Baroness Amos on her interim findings.
The DHSC says since July 2024, the government has taken significant action to improve maternity care, including creating targeted schemes to promote midwife retention, and the Graduate Guarantee, so that every qualified nurse and midwife in England can apply to join the health workforce.
The RCM welcomes any investment but is clear that £25 million falls significantly short of what is needed to fix the deep and long-standing problems facing maternity services.
The RCM is calling on the Government to commit to ringfenced, multi-year funding to really transform maternity services.
The RCM also notes that last August, the Government announced a Graduate Guarantee for midwives, to make sure that every newly qualified midwife could access a job.
The RCM welcomed this as offering a glimmer of hope but warned then that without ongoing funding — instead drawing funding from other vacant maternity posts — this was going to ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ and would be unsustainable.
The taskforce members include:
- Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Chair)
- Baroness Merron, Health Minister (Deputy Chair)
- Duncan Burton, Chief Nursing Officer for England
- Helen Gittos, Gary Andrews and Cathy Brewster, Family Representatives
- Habib Naqvi, Chief Executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory
- Nina Johns, Consultant Obstetrician, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
- Helen Cheyne, Professor of Midwifery, University of Stirling and RCM Scotland
- Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives
- Alison Wright, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
- Stephen Wardle, President of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine
- Clea Harmer, Chief Executive of Sands
- Helene Normann, Chief Midwifery Officer, Norwegian Directorate of Health
