Around one in seven babies born in the UK are admitted onto neonatal units. Since being set up in 1979, Bliss, the charity for babies born premature or sick, has led incredible campaigning work to improve outcomes for babies in neonatal care and support their families.  

I am pleased that in March 2023 NHS England launched a three-year delivery plan to transform neonatal and maternity services. This is vitally needed to address some of the shocking failures outlined in both the Ockenden and Kirkup reports.

It is right that the recommendations set out in these reports have been accepted by the Government, but it is now crucial that they are fully implemented. The care a baby receives in their first days within neonatal services will impact their long-term health and development.

I am particularly concerned about ethnic disparities in maternal health and neonatal outcomes. It is vital that we end the Black maternal mortality gap, and I am supporting calls for this to be a government commitment.

The successful delivery of NHS England’s three-year plan will require a modernised NHS, with comprehensive workforce planning to ensure we have the right people, with the right skills, in the right jobs within maternity and neo-natal services. I support the Opposition’s plans to oversee one of the biggest NHS workforce expansions in history, which will help cut waiting lists for specialist care, and allow the NHS to restore targets.

We must build an NHS fit for the future by providing it with the staff, technology, resources, and reform it needs to improve maternity care, address inequalities in maternal and neonatal outcomes, and ensure all patients get the support they need.