Emily Barley, whose daughter Beatrice died due to failings at Barnsley hospital in 2022, has warned that the appointment of a national maternity commissioner would be 'fundamentally dangerous'. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Barley, founder of the Maternity Safety Alliance, said the recommendation in the Amos review was 'not going to do what we need to move maternity safety forwards'.
Government responds to pressure with new commissioner role
Ministers have agreed to recruit the UK's first commissioner for maternity and neonatal care, responding to growing pressure. The role will involve pursuing hospitals over persistent failures, ensuring wide-ranging improvements, and restoring family trust in a maternity system rocked by scandals. Health Secretary James Murray announced the move in response to Valerie Amos's government-commissioned inquiry, which described a system characterised by poor care, failure to listen to women, and widespread racism and discrimination.
Barley, however, criticised the concentration of power. 'Concentrating all of the power and responsibility for turning around maternity services in the hands of one person is, in my view, just insane,' she said. 'It's not achievable. It seems designed to me to grab headlines, but not to make the change that we need.' She emphasised that none of the report's recommendations would have prevented Beatrice's death, and repeated her call for a public inquiry into maternity care failings.
Amos defends recommendation amid criticism
Responding on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Lady Amos defended the proposal: 'This is not about concentrating power in the hands of one person. It is about saying that you need an independent voice and advocate for women and families.' Her report made eight main recommendations, including an urgent overhaul of maternity triage services, the right for families to seek independent investigations when hospital inquiries are unsatisfactory, replacing the 'brutal' and 'cruel' compensation system with one requiring immediate error admission, and rooting out racism and discrimination 'embedded throughout the maternity and neonatal system'.
Amos told BBC Breakfast that cultural change is needed: 'We have to make sure that the staff who are looking after the women, that they understand how to deal with trauma. We have to have cultures in our health services where people feel able to speak up.' She expressed a personal view that a statutory public inquiry is unnecessary, as her proposed changes could have a 'transformational impact' if implemented quickly. 'Statutory public inquiries take such a long time,' she said, adding that she understands why some families are calling for one.
