10-Year Health Plan: Perinatal Mental Health
1/43. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the 10-year health plan for England on perinatal mental health.
The 10-year health plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country, including for women during the perinatal period. During the year to April 2025, a record 64,805 women accessed maternal mental health services or specialist community perinatal mental health services, such as those at the Whiteleaf centre in Aylesbury. The Department for Education is also investing £500 million to roll out Best Start family hubs to all local authorities in England, which will also support new mums.
I am really grateful to the Minister for her answer and for her focus on this. I would like to ask about midwives, who do incredible work supporting parents and babies, including identifying and supporting women who are facing mental health challenges. We desperately need more of them, yet the Royal College of Midwives has found that eight out of 10 student midwives who are due to qualify this year are not confident that they will find jobs. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that newly qualified midwives are able to find work?
I recognise my hon. Friend’s great work in this place to support women on this issue. We recognise that newly qualified midwives are experiencing challenges in gaining that first role. That is partly due to the record number of midwives in post and to better retention rates. NHS England is working with employers, universities and regional midwifery leads to help midwives find those roles after qualification and to transition into workforce, and we will keep a close eye on that with them.
In assessing the impact of the 10-year plan on perinatal health for England, can the Minister assure us that the lessons learned will be shared across the rest of the United Kingdom, to enhance care quality and reduce regional disparities, especially in Northern Ireland?
The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point about the important need to share the learning across the United Kingdom, and I will make sure that we do indeed make efforts to do that.
I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.
Over the weekend, The Guardian reported that the number of women dying in the perinatal period had risen sharply since 2015. Families that have been failed, and health professionals feel that whether it is perinatal depression or unsafe births, lessons are not being learned and the same errors are repeated in review after review. Alongside the inquiry that the Secretary of State has launched, will the Government immediately implement every action from the Ockenden review and put an end to this national scandal in maternity service?
The hon. Lady has raised a really important issue. She highlights the work that the Secretary of State is putting in place to address these issues and finally bring all that together to produce a plan that will assure people, and we are working at pace to ensure that those recommendations are implemented.