On 30 June 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care said it will appoint the UK’s first Maternity and Neonatal Commissioner in response to Baroness Amos’ independent investigation into maternity and neonatal services. The new post is intended to provide independent leadership, hold the system to account and rebuild confidence among women, babies and families after a series of serious failings. Ministers said the commissioner will co-chair a new National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce with the Health Secretary. In policy terms, that places the role above any single trust or regulator and gives it a direct link to national decision-making, with a stated purpose of making sure women’s experiences are heard when services are designed, reviewed and challenged.
The government said a National Action Plan will be published in December 2026 to set out both immediate priorities and longer-term reform. According to the Department, that plan will be shaped through the new taskforce and will bring together families, clinicians and other specialists around three stated tests: safety, equity and accountability. Baroness Amos’ investigation drew on evidence from thousands of women, relatives and staff, alongside local inquiries into 12 trusts. The report described a service that was fragmented, overly complex and slow to learn, with repeated concerns that women and families were not listened to, staff did not feel heard, and clear answers were often missing when care went wrong.
A central operational change is the introduction of new national standards for maternity triage. The Department said the aim is to ensure women are assessed quickly, listened to properly and given timely care from the point of arrival, reducing the current level of local variation in how urgent concerns are handled. Although ministers described the commissioner as a UK first, much of the operational package announced on 30 June relates to NHS services in England. For trusts and integrated care boards, national triage standards would create a clearer benchmark against which waiting times, escalation practice and patient experience can be measured.
The review also placed racial inequality and discrimination in direct view. According to the government’s summary of Baroness Amos’ findings, racism and discrimination are contributing to unequal care and outcomes, particularly for Black and Asian women, women from deprived backgrounds and other marginalised groups. In response, ministers said the Perinatal Equity and Anti-Discrimination Programme will be rolled out nationally. That measure is designed to move equity from a general commitment into a delivery programme, with maternity services expected to address poorer outcomes through training, oversight and more transparent use of local data.
Alongside the structural changes, the government announced a further £41 million for urgent works in maternity and neonatal facilities, on top of £145 million already committed since April 2025. The new funding is earmarked for issues such as fire safety, ventilation and outdated estate, indicating that the immediate response is not limited to clinical practice but also covers the physical condition of care settings. A separate workforce measure will fund 1,000 temporary NHS roles for newly qualified midwives, backed by more than £10 million. Ministers said the posts are intended to help graduates enter the service and reduce the loss of student midwives from the profession before they begin substantive practice.
The accountability strand goes beyond frontline maternity units. The Department said the new taskforce will examine the full health system when failures occur, including the role of regulators, with the aim of establishing where responsibility sits and why learning has too often been delayed. That approach connects to a wider package already in train. Ministers pointed to the extension of Martha’s Rule to maternity and neonatal wards in England, work to improve mortuary regulation, and the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, which is expected to allow past and present NHS staff to be compelled to provide evidence to the Leeds and Sussex maternity reviews once the legislation completes its passage through Parliament.
The announcement sits alongside earlier maternity and neonatal programmes already under way, including work to reduce avoidable brain injury during labour, interventions on stillbirth, neonatal death and preterm birth, a culture and leadership programme for unit leads, expanded maternal mental health services, updated guidance on the main causes of maternal death, an equalities dashboard for trusts and integrated care boards, and the extension of the baby loss certificate scheme to historic losses. The government’s case is that the commissioner and December 2026 action plan will give these separate measures a clearer line of oversight. For families currently using services, ministers and NHS leaders said concerns about a mother’s or baby’s condition should continue to be raised directly with midwives or maternity teams. The next formal milestones are the appointment process for the commissioner, the immediate actions agreed by NHS leaders, and publication of the December plan with clear deadlines and named responsibilities.