I am today announcing the appointment of Michelle Welsh MP as a maternity adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Improving the safety of maternity and neonatal services and the experiences of women and their families is a key priority for me as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and for this Government. We are committed to acting with urgency, transparency and accountability to drive improvements in care, working closely with families, clinicians and stakeholders. A central part of this work will be tackling the unacceptable inequalities in outcomes that persist across maternity and neonatal services.

Michelle Welsh MP will provide me, and my Department, with independent advice to support the Government aim of improving the quality of care for women, babies and their families in NHS maternity and neonatal care, and to reduce the stark inequalities faced by so many.

The new DHSC maternity adviser will support my Department to deliver for maternity services by:

Providing advice on improving the quality of care in maternity and neonatal services, including addressing inequalities in outcomes and access to care. This will include supporting the Department to agree priority areas and deliverables to support improvement, drawing on the experiences of women and families, available evidence, stakeholder views and her own experience and expertise.

Supporting and driving forward the work of the national maternity and neonatal taskforce, including by chairing the parliamentary and mayoral panel and as a member of the taskforce.

Engaging with stakeholders, including families and under-represented groups, to ensure that a wide range of perspectives inform the Government work to improve maternity and neonatal care, particularly those experiencing health disparities.

This appointment, alongside the membership of the national maternity and neonatal taskforce, and the expert reference groups that feed into it, bring together the depth and breadth of expertise and experience needed to truly drive forward the taskforce’s urgent work to improve maternity and neonatal care.

The taskforce will oversee the development of a new national action plan based on the findings and recommendations of the national maternity and neonatal independent investigation led by Baroness Amos, and by holding the system to account for implementation of the action plan and for improvements in care and experiences for women, babies and families, and for the experiences of staff.

The action plan will also consider any recommendations from other reviews and inquiries that have national implications, including the independent review of maternity and neonatal care at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. It will tackle the systemic issues in maternity and neonatal care, providing clear priorities for action so that the workforce is supported to ensure that women and families are listened to and provided with safe care, and so that truth, accountability and learning take place when things go wrong.

Transparency on how the national maternity and neonatal taskforce is delivering the necessary change is important for public accountability. To support this, today my Department will be publishing the taskforce’s terms of reference, ways of working charter and summary note of the first meeting on gov.uk. We will also be publishing the names and organisations of those involved in the expert reference groups which support the work of the taskforce.

The appointment will take effect from Tuesday 19 May 2026 and is an unpaid role.

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