Today’s publication (26 February) of the Independent Investigation into Maternity and Neonatal Services in England – Interim report sets out the emerging themes and insights from the Independent Maternity and Neonatal Investigation (IMNI) in England, chaired by Baroness Amos.
Caroline Lee-Davey, Bliss Chief Executive said: “Today’s report makes for difficult reading, and shares some shocking examples of poor care and experience across maternity and neonatal services in England.
“The report highlights the impact of health inequality and disadvantage on neonatal outcomes, including mortality, as well as the unacceptable variation in how neonatal care is experienced by babies depending on their ethnicity. The insights demonstrate that parents have experienced judgmental, discriminatory and racist attitudes, sometimes leaving them fearful of raising concerns and that the system is “not for them”. These insights chime with Bliss’ own research, which has assessed the experiences of younger parents and South Asian families.
“It is welcome that the Interim Report recognises some of the specific issues impacting neonatal services, including inconsistent provision of transitional care, the challenges in maintaining the right levels of neonatal nurse staffing, and patchy availability of community outreach and neonatal palliative care.
“The report also acknowledges how important culture and physical environment are to embed Family Integrated Care (FICare), an approach to care which enables parents to be partners in their baby’s neonatal care, which we know is best for babies and families. While there is brief recognition that ‘sleeping facilities’, alongside other spaces for families, are important, we urge the Investigation team to focus more in its final report on how critical neonatal parent accommodation is to support parental presence and partnership in neonatal care.
“This report is a positive step towards highlighting the unique needs of neonatal services. We now await the final recommendations of the Investigation and hope to see an increasing focus on the needs of babies who receive neonatal care, and their families within it, to inform improvement plans for the future.”
The interim findings report establishes that one aim of this investigation is to understand how ‘negligent, poor, good and excellent’ practice can all co-exist, and to identify what drives safe care sustainably. While this report makes no recommendations, it does identify six factors which are adding pressure to the maternity and neonatal system:
Capacity pressures
Culture and leadership
Racism and discrimination
Poor responses and lack of accountability when things go wrong
The quality of estates
Workforce
The National Maternity and Neonatal investigation evidence gathering phase is still ongoing. While we don’t think the Call for Evidence goes far enough to capture how neonatal care is experienced by babies, their parents and their wider families, this does remain an important opportunity to share experiences of neonatal care. If you would like to take part you can do so before the closing date of 17 March: https://www.matneoinv.org.uk/call-for-evidence/
