Shropshire baby scandal: Maternity campaigners meet CQC chief

Parents Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton, and Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths, spoke with Ian Trenholm, chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the organisation tasked with ensuring England's health services are safe.

The couples, whose efforts led to the Ockenden Inquiry, which uncovered serious long-term failings in maternity care at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust, are campaigning for a national inquiry into maternity care.

A petition launched by the parents has so far attracted more than 28,000 signatures.

The meeting with the CQC took place after they wrote to the organisation raising concerns about the standard and consistency of its inspections and ratings for maternity service across the country.

Speaking after the meeting, which took place on Friday, Ms Davies said Mr Trenholm had said he was prepared to discuss the concept of a 'maternity alliance' with regulators in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Ms Davies said such a move would be hugely beneficial in providing improved services and safety for mothers, because it would allow ideas, changes, and improvements to be shared and put in place more quickly.

She said: "It is the first time that the body regulating maternity care has said 'Yes, we will look at the four nations as a joined up thing'."

Ms Davies has followed up on the meeting with a letter to Mr Trenholm thanking him for his suggestion.

In it she says: "We feel this is an important first step on the path towards national learning and the creation of a national plan of action; a plan that will take a child from pre-conception though their early years of life healthily, and within a well-supported network.

"Thank you for listening to our ambition for the four nations to work together to share ideas, learn and create required change more quickly.

"You suggested the regulators could form an ‘alliance’. We agree and would like to support you to achieve this. We hope your peers listen and say: ‘yes, we can do this’ because we feel certain the failing state of maternity and early years’ service provision can be turned around in less than a generation with collaboration. Because our children deserve a better, safer journey to parenthood, and their children deserve a better start in life."

But Ms Davies said they would still be pushing for a national inquiry.

"We need a full plan for the future rather than piecemeal learning," she said.

"It is not sustainable and viable to have all these separate pieces of work – it needs to be one joined up national piece of work."

Speaking following the meeting a CQC spokesperson said: “As a healthcare system, we need to do better for women, people using services and their babies and CQC is committed to playing our part in that. We are currently exploring how we might work more closely with regulators in the devolved nations to support faster improvements in maternity safety across the UK.”

Ms Davies, Mr Stanton, and Mr and Mrs Griffiths were all appointed MBEs for their work in campaigning for improved maternity safety.

Their efforts came after their daughters, Kate Stanton-Davies and Pippa Griffiths, both died avoidably, due to errors at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

The petition, and updates on the campaign can be found at change.org/p/national-maternity-inquiry/u/32221407.