Baroness Amos Unveils Shocking Findings on UK Maternity Care Crisis

Introduction: A Critical Voice for Healthcare Reform

Baroness Valerie Amos, a distinguished British politician and diplomat, has emerged as a powerful force for change in the UK’s healthcare system. On 14 August 2025, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting announced the appointment of Baroness Valerie Amos to chair the independent investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal care. This appointment comes at a crucial time when families across England have been calling for accountability and urgent improvements in maternity services following numerous tragic incidents and preventable deaths.

With an illustrious career spanning international diplomacy, government leadership, and academia, Baroness Amos brings both independence and expertise to this vital investigation. When she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 12 May 2003, following the resignation of Clare Short, Amos became the first Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) woman to serve as a Cabinet minister. She left in 2020 to become master at University College, Oxford; she was the first woman to hold the post and the first Black person to head a college at the University of Oxford.

Disturbing Revelations from the Investigation

In December 2025, Baroness Amos published her initial findings, revealing deeply troubling patterns across NHS maternity units. Reflecting on the first three months of her investigation in a new report, Baroness Amos said “nothing prepared me for the scale of unacceptable care that women and families have received, and continue to receive, the tragic consequences for their babies, and the impact on their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing.”

Baroness Valerie Amos, who is leading the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation (NMNI), has spoken to more than 170 families across England, including those whose babies have died because of failings in care. The report outlines recurring issues identified across multiple NHS trusts, including women not being listened to, inadequate information being provided to support informed decision-making, inconsistent responses to concerns about reduced foetal movement, and reports of women who had experienced pregnancy loss being placed on wards with newborn babies.

Perhaps most staggering is the scale of previous recommendations that have gone unheeded. Baroness Amos confirmed that almost 750 recommendations on maternity and neonatal safety have been made over the past decade, yet progress across services has been described as slow, with similar findings arising repeatedly. The report also detailed discrimination against women of colour, working-class women, younger parents and women with mental health problems.

The Path Forward: Significance for Families and the NHS

Baroness Amos’s investigation represents a critical opportunity for systemic change in NHS maternity care. The final report and national recommendations will be published in Spring 2026. The Investigation will launch an online Call for Evidence for families in January 2026, which will be open for eight weeks.

The significance of this investigation extends beyond individual tragedies to fundamental questions about patient safety and institutional accountability. For families who have suffered unimaginable loss, Baroness Amos offers hope that their experiences will drive meaningful reform. For the NHS, her findings present both a challenge and an opportunity to rebuild trust and ensure every woman and baby receives safe, high-quality care.

As the investigation continues, Baroness Amos’s leadership—marked by her decades of experience in humanitarian affairs, international development, and institutional change—positions her uniquely to bridge the gap between bereaved families and a healthcare system in desperate need of transformation.