Michelle Welsh

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) on securing today’s important debate. She has highlighted that black women often receive a worse standard of care and that their risk of maternal death is three times higher than for white women. The situation in Nottinghamshire demonstrates why change must happen quickly. As some in the Chamber will know, there is currently an independent review into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust, led by Donna Ockenden. I first called for this review when I was a councillor after my experience of giving birth to my son in 2020. I knew then, as I know now, that women accessing services at NUH do not always receive the care they deserve, nor are they listened to when they raise concerns. Ahead of today’s debate, I reached out to Donna Ockenden and her team for their perspective on black maternal health in Nottinghamshire so that I could highlight it here today. When the Donna Ockenden review was established in Nottingham two years ago, the Nottingham University Hospitals trust could not share a single named contact within the black community, nor did the trust have any meaningful engagement with the many groups across Nottinghamshire. It had no way of reaching into groups of black women who might have been affected by poor maternity care. The translated resources provided by the trust were also very limited. It is therefore unsurprising that trust between black communities and Nottingham University Hospitals trust was at an all-time low. As Donna Ockenden rightly emphasised to me, that only increased the risk that women and their families would disengage from vital health services and be unable to give informed consent to treatment through their maternity programme. I am pleased to say that the review’s work so far is leading to some improvements in the NHS, and I believe it is important to acknowledge that progress even if there is still so much further to go. Since the review began, Donna and her team have met many community groups across Nottinghamshire and attended numerous church services and meetings in the majority black-led churches. They have also appeared on the famous Kemet FM, a local community radio station that focuses on the music, wellbeing and culture of Nottingham’s African and Caribbean communities, broadcasting across the east midlands and the Caribbean. Following that outreach, many black families have come forward to the review, and community engagement has strengthened as the review has progressed. I am pleased to report that these learnings are shared with the trust in bimonthly learning and improvement meetings, although it has taken years to build that relationship with local communities and to establish trust. That is essential not only in providing safe care that is reflective of the population’s needs, but in ensuring that the voices of black women are no longer ignored. It is clear that there had been little or no communication for so long. However, it is important to acknowledge that not every trust has a Donna Ockenden. They do not have somebody reaching out to black communities and black women to find out what is happening and how they are affected by health services. I know that the last 14 years have had a hugely detrimental impact on maternity services across the country. The only way we can begin to fix them is by tackling the underlying issues in the culture of the NHS. It is important to note, as I have just said, that not every NHS trust has a Donna Ockenden and the level of scrutiny that happened in Nottingham. As the newly elected chair of the all-party parliamentary group on maternity, I am committed to working with the Government on a health strategy for maternity services that recognises how inequalities have a huge impact on the care that people receive. I therefore urge the Minister to ensure that the experiences of black women are at the heart of any forthcoming maternity strategy, and that trusts are strongly encouraged to engage with communities so that their voices are no longer ignored. If inequalities are to be addressed, we require a national framework and a maternity strategy that is fit for the future.