Leeds Maternity Review: An important step for patient safety

Wes Streeting’s decision to appoint Donna Ockenden as chair of the Leeds Maternity and Neonatal Independent Review is an important development for patient safety and transparency in maternity care.

Independent reviews of maternity services play a critical role in identifying systemic failings and ensuring that lessons are learned. When conducted thoroughly, they can drive meaningful improvements in clinical practice, governance and oversight across the NHS. While independent reviews are no replacement for a much-needed wider Public Inquiry, for those families in Leeds who have tirelessly worked to get to this stage, this is a very big step towards accountability and, we hope, safer maternity care.

The credit must go to those harmed families who have been determinedly pushing for this. We can only hope that the conclusions will be received, safer care delivered, and that affected parents in West Yorkshire feel heard.

The Leeds review will examine maternity and neonatal care provided by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust over a significant period of time (2011 – 2025). Importantly, the review is expected to adopt an opt-out approach, meaning that cases within the relevant timeframe will automatically be included unless families decide otherwise. This model has been used in previous maternity investigations and helps ensure that the full scope of concerns is properly understood.

Why does independent scrutiny matter?

Maternity services are among the most complex areas of healthcare. The vast majority of births occur safely, but when serious incidents happen, they can have lifelong consequences for families.

Independent reviews provide an opportunity to step back from individual cases and examine wider patterns. They can highlight whether concerns raised by patients or staff were properly escalated, whether warning signs were missed, and whether systems designed to protect patient safety functioned as intended.

They also allow for scrutiny of the broader framework surrounding maternity services, including how regulators such as the Care Quality Commission respond to emerging safety concerns.

The importance of staff and family engagement

For any investigation of this nature to succeed, engagement from both families and healthcare professionals is essential.

Families provide vital insight into the care they received and how communication, decision-making and clinical management affected them. Healthcare professionals, both current and former staff, can help identify systemic pressures within maternity services and highlight areas that require improvement.

It is particularly important that those who come forward are supported throughout the process. Open and constructive participation is essential if the review is to identify the root causes of harm and ensure that recommendations lead to genuine and long-lasting change.

A focus on learning and improvement

Reviews of maternity services must ultimately focus on learning. Identifying failings is only the first step; implementing meaningful improvement is what protects future patients.

In recent years, maternity investigations across England have highlighted recurring themes, including communication failures, staffing pressures, escalation processes and the need for stronger safety cultures within clinical teams.

The Leeds review provides an opportunity to examine whether similar issues exist and, if so, how they can be addressed.

Our view

At Ashtons Legal, we currently represent families in Leeds who have experienced serious maternity harm. Their cases demonstrate why robust scrutiny of maternity services is essential and why lessons must be acted upon.

Natalie Cosgrove, Partner in the Medical Negligence team at Ashtons Legal, said:

“Independent maternity reviews are a vital mechanism for improving patient safety. They allow patterns of harm to be identified, systems to be scrutinised, and lessons to be learned in a way that individual cases alone cannot achieve.

“At Ashtons Legal, we currently represent families in Leeds who have experienced serious maternity harm, and we know how important it is that concerns are examined transparently and rigorously.

“My hope is that this review leads to clear findings, meaningful accountability and practical recommendations that strengthen maternity safety for mothers and babies both in Leeds and across the NHS.”

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