Families affected by concerns at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust have welcomed an independent review into its maternity and neonatal services. They say their babies were failed, and that they felt gaslit, dismissed and blamed for what went wrong. Health Secretary Wes Streeting met the families and said he was shocked by their experiences of repeated maternity failures in Leeds, made worse by the trust’s response. He said the scale of the hospital should not mask safety failures and that an urgent inquiry is needed to provide honesty and accountability and to end the normalisation of deaths in maternity units.

The families are waiting for the terms of reference but believe police involvement should be part of the process. They have called for midwife Donna Ockenden to chair the review, pointing to her leadership of the independent maternity review at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. Fiona Winser-Ramm, whose daughter died in 2020, welcomed the inquiry and said it must be led by Ockenden and be as thorough as possible, insisting that those involved deserve a full accounting and a voice for their children and for other women and families.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is among 14 hospital trusts to be examined in a national investigation into maternity and neonatal services led by Baroness Amos. The inquiry will scrutinise a range of services after independent reviews highlighted issues such as women’s voices being ignored, safety concerns and poor leadership creating toxic cultures. The Care Quality Commission downgraded the trust to inadequate in June, citing serious risks to women and babies and a culture that discouraged staff from speaking up. Whistleblowers have warned units remain unsafe, with concerns that dozens of baby deaths between 2019 and 2024 could have been prevented with better care.