PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Maternity Services (12 April 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made on implementing the continuity of care model of midwifery for women (a) of Black and Asian ethnic backgrounds and (b) living in the most deprived decile lower layer super output areas.

Asked by:
Marsha De Cordova (Labour)

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s latest survey of 108 trusts indicated that in October 2020, services had continuity of carer teams in place to offer continuity to 15.9% of women. That represents 2,322 midwives offering continuity of care to an estimated 94,000 women. Of these teams, over 60% or 214 were reported as being placed in areas of deprivation and approximately half or 165 in areas with high proportions of black, Asian and mixed ethnic groups.

Information on the proportion of new mothers from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds offered continuity of carer in 2019-20 and 2020-21 is not available. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with trusts to improve the quality of data recorded in maternity information systems, so provision of continuity of carer can be evidenced nationally from routine care records of all women, including those that are of black, Asian and mixed ethnic groups, or living in deprived areas.

Answered by:
Ms Nadine Dorries (Conservative)
28 April 2021