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Wes Streeting Is Announced independent investigation of maternity and Newborn service failure in Leeds following campaign by bereaved families.
Guardian The launch of the independent inquiry into Leeds has been welcomed teaching hospital NHS trust, where she says failings led to harm to her children.
Health SecretaryMet with families on Thursday, says he is “shocked” “From their experiences of repeated maternity failures in Leeds – made worse by the Trust’s unacceptable response”.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was previously set to be among just 14 hospital trusts to be included in the national rapid review of maternity services launched by the Health Secretary this summer. The review is being led by Baroness Amos.
However, the families have campaigned for an independent investigation, similar to that at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust (SATH) and Nottingham University Hospitals Foundation Trust (NUH).
It comes after a report by the National Audit Office warned that the UK is costing billions in negligence claims linked to failings of NHS maternity services.
Announcing the review, Mr Streeting said “There is a huge contradiction between the scale and safety standards, which is why I am taking this extraordinary step to order an immediate investigation into Leeds.”
He said: “We must give families the honesty and accountability they deserve and end the normalization of women and babies dying in maternity units.
“These are people who, in a moment of great vulnerability, placed their lives and the lives of their unborn children in the hands of others – and instead of being supported and cared for, found themselves suffering.”
family members have called Donna Ockendenwho is currently chairing the Nottingham inquiry and leading the Shrewsbury inquiry Investigation In leeds. He also said that the police should also be involved, as forces in both Nottingham and Shrewsbury have also launched investigations.
An investigation into Nottingham hospitals was launched following reports of Independent Dozens of allegations of harm and poor care exposed.
In March 2022, the Ockenden review of SATH found that 200 babies died or suffered brain damage due to the failure of the trust’s maternity services.
The NUH review is the largest ever investigation into maternity failings and is examining almost 2,500 cases of alleged poor care. The final report into NUH is expected to be published in June 2026.
Fiona Winsor-Rham, whose daughter Aliona died in 2020, said the inquiry found numerous failings, “welcoming the inquiry to ensure it is the best and most thorough it can be and it is essential that Donna Ockenden is appointed to lead this review”.
He added: “We have all been pushed into this life that none of us should live.
“None of us should know each other. The only place where we potentially should have been friends is at a babysitter or children’s play group – instead, we are supporting each other in the worst times.
“But it is a compulsion and we have no choice in the matter.
“This is the only way we can raise our children now. All of our girls deserved a voice. They all deserved a life, and we deserved that life with them.
“Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust has stolen this from all of us. We now have to be the voice for our children, but it is also wider to be the voice for other women and children, because everyone deserves protection.”
The terms of reference for the Leeds review have not yet been published, and a chair has not yet been announced.
In June, the Care Quality Commission rated the trust “inadequate”, citing serious risks to women and babies and a deep-rooted “blame culture” which left staff afraid to speak out.
Whistleblowers have warned that the units remain unsafe, and the BBC reported that the deaths of at least 56 children between January 2019 and July 2024 could have been prevented with better care.
Lauren Caulfield, whose daughter Grace died days before her birth in 2022, said: “Something went very, very wrong and what I found next was a refusal to admit their mistakes, to be honest with me about the failings of individuals, a very defensive type of leadership team.
“I was very dismissed and blamed and almost blamed for many of the things that happened in my experiences.”
He said the family want Ms Ockenden to lead the investigation because they feel “no one else has the experience, expertise, trust of families and staff, compassion and capacity to investigate a trust of this size and we have been very clear with the Secretary of State that it should be Donna and her team”.