Better Births: A platform for innovation and transformation

The National Maternity Review (2016) provides a platform for innovation and transformation for the provision of maternity services. The report outlines a vision for safer, personalised, family-centred care, supported by well-led staff within a culture of continuous learning and multidisciplinary education—a culture where staff thrive and women and their families receive the best care.

Its ambitions are contextualised within seven broad themes: safer care, personalised care, continuity of carer, better postnatal and perinatal mental health care, multi-professional working, working across boundaries, and a payment system that adequately compensates providers.

The report outlines how professionals lead services within a culture of safety and learning, working together across boundaries, ensuring timely access to the right care in the right place through rapid referral. The report recommends that there should be a lead for maternity services at provider board level, to appraise the board of the quality and safety of maternity services. There is potential for implementation of this proposal to be measured through Care Quality Commission inspection processes.