Last week, maternity safe staffing reached the floor of the House of Commons. 

After months of campaigning by the Royal College of Midwives, MPs debated proposals that would have put new requirements around staffing and maternity safety into law. It was part of the Health Bill’s amendment stage – with the Bill making changes to how the NHS in England is run. 

During the amendment stage, MPs use it as an opportunity to make changes to the Bill – and on Monday 7 September, MPs debated and voted on additional maternity safety measures which included workforce planning and safe staffing levels. 

The amendment was defeated by 317 to 77, and while this is shocking that a majority voted against, it isn’t the end of the road. It was an important moment in our Safe Staffing = Safe Care campaign. So what exactly were MPs voting on, and where do we go from here? 

Here are five things you need to know.

1. Getting safe staffing to a vote in Parliament is significant.

The RCM has spent months pushing safe staffing higher up the political agenda, making the case directly to Government and MPs that maternity reform must include the workforce needed to deliver it. 

It’s really disappointing that the amendment didn’t pass, but getting maternity safe staffing debated and voted on in Parliament is an important step forward. 

It means the conversation among decision-makers is increasingly about what needs to be in place to make improvements to maternity services. We’ve made it clear that safe staffing has to be part of the answer. 

2. Even though it was voted against, it doesn’t mean the issue goes away.

The Health Bill is still making its way through Parliament. 

The vote in the Commons means that the safe staffing amendment won’t become part of the Bill in its current form – but as with all laws passed in Government, the scrutiny of the legislation isn’t over. 

As the Bill progresses, it will move over to the House of Lords for further debates and scrutiny – and the RCM will continue looking for opportunities to strengthen to case for safe staffing. 

It’s important to remember that our Safe Staffing = Safe Care campaign goes wider than one piece of legislation. We’ll continue to push the Government for the long-term workforce planning and investment which maternity services need. 

We’re not making this case alone – the campaign for safe staffing is growing. At the TUC Congress this week, trade unions representing millions of workers backed an RCM motion calling for sustained investment in safe maternity staffing. 

If the wider trade union movement can unite behind the need for safe maternity staffing, we believe Parliament should be able to do the same. 

3. The amendment would have put maternity staffing into law.

Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan proposed a package of measures aimed at making maternity care safer, with staffing at the very heart of it. 

Part of the amendment included a requirement for one to-one midwifery care during established labour, alongside 24/7 consultant obstetrician cover on labour wards and a Director of Midwifery in every maternity service. It would also have required progress to be reported back to Parliament every year. 

We know that having the right number of staff with the right skills, in the right place at the right time is fundamental to providing safe care, so this was an important opportunity to put safe staffing in the minds of MPs. And while the amendment wasn’t the complete answer to maternity workforce pressures, it would have put a greater responsibility on Government to ensure the staffing was there to deliver safe care. 

4. The evidence of staffing levels is getting harder to ignore.

We’ve got the evidence that unsafe staffing levels is a significant barrier to providing safe care. Just last week (10 September), the latest MBRRACE-UK report on maternal deaths highlighted a link between staffing levels and maternity safety. 

There’s also the evidence from our member-wide flash survey over summer, where 93% of those who responded said they felt unsafe staffing levels affected the quality of care they were able to provide. We hear from members working through breaks, working longer than their shifts and trying to provide care to women and babies while working in overstretched services. 

5. So what happens now?

The simple answer: We keep going. 

This Commons vote has given maternity safe staffing a platform and now we need to build on it. We will keep lobbying MPs, peers and Government, using the evidence and our members’ experiences to make the case for urgent action.  

There’s one question the RCM will keep asking: 

How can we expect to deliver safer maternity care without ensuring services have the staff they need to provide it? 

We’re not going to stop until we have safe staffing in maternity across the UK.