Announcements

Today, the thoughts of all the Independent Review team are with the parents, grandparents, and families of babies Adele, Quinn, and Kahlani. 

The Independent Review promises that Adele, Quinn, Kahlani & their families will have their voices heard and amplified through the Review. The fine of £1.6million to Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust for the avoidable failings the families suffered cannot turn the clock back or bring back their babies. Nor can it bring back the lives the families had before these failings. 

The Review team commits that the short lives of Kahlani, Quinn and Adele will bring about long lasting and sustainable change in maternity safety both in Nottinghamshire, and nationally. Everyone is born: therefore the provision of safe maternity care for all mothers and babies needs to be the highest of NHS priorities – today and going forward.

As part of our commitment to remain open and honest throughout the duration of the Review, we try to provide updates to all families within the Review, as often and as sensitively, as we can. 

Please read the following update from Donna Ockenden, Chair of the Review, about the Review’s progress and what this means for families that are part of the Review.

As of today, 2,032 families have joined the Review. To be included within the Review, a family must meet the Terms of Reference for the Review. The way in which we receive information about a family to be included in the Review is either through direct contact from the family; and/or, the Review team receive information from the Trust through the ‘open book’ process. The ‘open book’ process, is the term used to describe the way in which the Trust look through their records to see if any cases meet the Terms of Reference of the Review. 

We have been working with Anthony May, Chief Executive of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and his colleagues to ensure that all appropriate cases are included in the Independent Review. This work has identified some discrepancies. These discrepancies are cases that should have been provided to the Review, but were not. The discrepancies relate to the following categories:

• Babies who have died
• Babies with brain injury
• Mothers who have died

We would like to stress that this has arisen from a genuine misunderstanding. As a matter of urgency, these cases will be sent to the Review Team. This means they will be reviewed by our team, we can offer support to these families and the Trust will learn from the experiences of these cases.

As a result, the number of families that are to be included in the Review will significantly increase; this is expected to be up to 300 new families. We expect that the numbers of families in the Review (when the Review closes to new cases at the end of May 2025) to be about 2,500 families. 

Families will remember that we have always said we would do our very best to publish our report at the end of September 2025. When we made this commitment, we had approximately 1,700 families in the Review. Even without the new families joining the Review the number of families has increased as of today to 2,032. With the new families joining the Review we are letting you know we will have to delay publication of the report until June 2026, with family feedback to follow after publication. This will give the Review team the opportunity to provide support to all families, and to allow for all cases to be reviewed to the highest professional standards that all of us expect. The Terms of Reference will be updated to reflect the new publication date and the date the Review closes to new cases.

We recognise that this update may be difficult for some families to hear, so if you feel as though you need extra support at this time please contact the Review team, or the Family Psychological Support Service (FPSS). We are here to help you wherever we can. Please remember that you can contact the Family Psychological Support Service by:

Phone: 0115 200 1000

Email: enquiries@fpssnottingham.co.uk

Read Kurdish PDF
Read Polski (Polish) PDF
Read Punjabi PDF
Read Română (Romanian) PDF
Read اردو (Urdu) PDF
Read العربية (Arabic) PDF
Read 繁體中文 (Chinese) PDF
Read Farsi PDF

Chief Constable Kate Meynell said: “On Wednesday I met with Donna Ockenden to discuss her Independent Review into  maternity cases of potentially significant concern  at  Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH)  and to build up a clearer picture of the work that is taking place.

We want to work alongside the review but also ensure that we do not hinder its progress.

However, I am in a position to say we are preparing to launch a police investigation

I have appointed the Assistant Chief Constable, Rob Griffin to oversee the preparations and the subsequent investigation.  

We are currently looking at the work being done in Shrewsbury and Telford   by  West Mercia Police  to understand how they conducted their investigation alongside Donna Ockenden’s review and any lessons learnt.

Now we have met with Donna Ockenden we plan to  hold preliminary discussions with some local families in the near future.  

 Anthony May, Chief executive of NUH has committed to fully cooperate with this Police Investigation”

Donna Ockenden, Chair of the Independent Review of Maternity Services at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust said: ‘I welcome the news that the new Chief Constable Kate Meynell has decided to commence an investigation into maternity services. I know that a number of the affected families have been asking for this for many years.

As the Review Chair my team and I are absolutely committed to working with the Police. I am grateful to the Chief Constable for her assurance that the Police investigation will not delay the progress of our work.

Having spoken to hundreds of families in the last year I am very aware that this news whilst long awaited may well be unsettling for many families. Please remember that support is available for all families who are part of the review. There is information on our website and our team can help you with a referral for that support. You can reach out to us via support@donnaockenden.com

My team and I also recognise that this is a difficult time for maternity staff at the Trust. We recognise that the vast majority of staff give of their very best every day of the week. If you have not already done so – we encourage you to reach out to the Review team via staffvoices@donnaockenden.com’