Government announces taskforce for National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

We welcome the announcement of a new taskforce to oversee action on the recommendations of the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation, led by Baroness Amos. 

The 17-member taskforce will be chaired by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, and brings together an expert panel including senior NHS leaders, royal colleges, campaigners, academics and third sector representatives. Collectively, they bring the clinical expertise, lived experience and sector insight needed to drive meaningful change. 

The group will begin preparing for the findings and recommendations of Baroness Amos’ review, with the final report expected in June 2026. 

We are pleased to see organisations such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and Sands represented within the taskforce, alongside voices bringing lived experience into its work. 

However, as this work moves forward, it is essential that pre-24 week pregnancy loss is explicitly included and meaningfully represented within the taskforce’s remit. 

While the investigation has committed to examining care and support for adverse outcomes such as miscarriage, too often those experiencing miscarriage are overlooked in national reviews and system-wide improvements. This is despite the scale of the issue, with around 250,000 pregnancies ending in loss in the UK each year. 

This taskforce presents a vital opportunity to drive meaningful change across maternity and neonatal services. To do so effectively, it must ensure that the voices and needs of those experiencing pre-24 week pregnancy loss are not only acknowledged, but embedded within its work from the outset. 

We stand ready to support this work and to ensure that no one experiencing pregnancy loss is left without the care and support they need. 

The full article from the DHSC can be read, here. The taskforce members include: 

• Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Chair) 

• Baroness Merron, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women’s Health and Mental Health (Deputy Chair and Chair of the Regulators and Investigatory Bodies Expert Reference Group) 

• Duncan Burton, Chief Nursing Officer for England (Senior Responsible Officer for Maternity) 

• Helen Gittos, Family Representative (Chair of Family Expert Reference Group) 

• Gary Andrews, Family Representative (Chair of Family Expert Reference Group) 

• Cathy Brewster, Family Representative (Chair of Family Expert Reference Group) 

• Lauren Caulfield, Family Representative (Health Equity Expert Reference Group lived experience representative) 

• Habib Naqvi, Chief Executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory (Chair of the Health Equity Expert Reference Group) 

• Nina Johns, Consultant obstetrician and Clinical Director at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (Co-chair of Workforce, Clinical and Academic Expert Reference Group) 

• Helen Cheyne, Professor of Maternal and Child Health Research at the University of Stirling and Professor of Midwifery at the Royal College of Midwives (Scotland) (Co-chair of Workforce, Clinical and Academic Expert Reference Group)   

• Avey Bhatia, Chief Nurse at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, co-lead on Patient Safety and Clinical Governance (Senior Health System representative) 

• Louise Stead, CEO of Ashford and St Peter’s and Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trusts (Senior Health System representative) 

• Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives 

• Alison Wright, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 

• Representative of The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health/British Association of Perinatal Medicine – to be confirmed 

• Clea Harmer, Chief Executive of Sands (Chair of Charity and Third Sector Expert Reference Group) 

• Helene Normann, Senior advisor and Chief Midwifery Officer at the Norwegian Directorate of Health (International Expert)