Baroness Valerie Amos, a figure celebrated for her trailblazing leadership and international experience, has been appointed to head a rapid review into maternity and neonatal care across England. The move, announced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting on August 14, 2025, comes at a time of mounting pressure from bereaved families and professionals demanding urgent reform in the National Health Service’s (NHS) maternity services.
The appointment of Baroness Amos, who currently serves as master of University College, Oxford, and was the first Black Cabinet member in the UK, is being hailed as a pivotal step by some and met with skepticism by others. According to the BBC, Streeting described Amos as having “an outstanding record of leadership and driving change,” emphasizing his belief that she will “uncover the truth” about persistent failings in maternity care. Streeting has been meeting with families affected by tragic outcomes in NHS maternity units, as well as with staff who have raised the alarm about “systemic” failures.
The review, first announced in June 2025, is set to examine up to ten NHS Trusts, though as of mid-August, no specific trusts have been named. The aim is to produce an initial set of national recommendations by December. However, delays in assembling the expert panel and finalizing the review’s terms of reference have already prompted concern. As Streeting acknowledged, “more work was needed on appointing the panel of experts who will support Baroness Amos, as well as on the terms of reference of the review.”
One of the most striking features of this investigation is the government’s promise to involve families at every stage. Baroness Amos herself has pledged to “carry the weight of the loss suffered by families with me throughout this investigation,” expressing hope that the review will “provide the answers that families are seeking and support the NHS in identifying areas of care requiring urgent reform.”
Yet, for many families, optimism is tempered by deep-seated distrust. Emily Barley, from the Maternity Safety Alliance—a coalition of parents whose children died due to inadequate care—spoke candidly to the BBC: “Wes Streeting instigated this investigation with all good intentions, but DHSC and NHS England have turned it into the same old, same old. We now believe it will have the same effects as previous such national reviews and achieve nothing but further delay. Meanwhile, babies continue to be killed by NHS failings.”
Barley’s group and others have criticized the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for proposing chairs and panelists they see as too close to the NHS establishment, including Sir Bruce Keogh, Dame Lesley Regan, and Dame Donna Kinnair. Many families, according to the BBC, view these figures as “part of the healthcare system that has caused the harm that they are living with.” The DHSC has since stated that Baroness Amos will work directly with families to devise a panel of experts they trust.
The skepticism is not limited to the choice of chair. Families in Leeds and Sussex have been vocal in their calls for senior midwife Donna Ockenden to lead local inquiries into alleged poor maternity care. Both groups received letters just this week stating that no decision had been made. In a statement to the BBC, Sussex families insisted, “We have been clear for over a year. We want Donna Ockenden to review our babies’ deaths, providing the same gold-standard scrutiny that she has conducted elsewhere in the country. We don’t understand what the hold-up is and we won’t accept anything less. It is what our babies deserve.”
Ockenden is currently leading a major review into maternity care in Nottingham, set to examine around 2,500 cases and due for completion in 2026. Families in Leeds echo the sentiment: “Donna is the only person with the leadership, experience, track record and standing with families that make her uniquely placed to carry out the kind of honest process that Leeds families need and deserve.”
Despite these tensions, Baroness Amos’s appointment has received a warm welcome from the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). Gill Walton, chief executive of the RCM, told the Evening Standard, “We are pleased to hear of the appointment of Baroness Amos as chair of the rapid review. She has a reputation for taking a thoughtful and strategic approach and we welcome her fresh insight into maternity and neonatal safety. It is absolutely vital, though, that this review gets under way quickly.” Walton highlighted the urgency: “Every woman and family should leave maternity and neonatal services whole, happy and healthy, and every member of maternity staff should start and end their shift knowing they have provided safe, good-quality care. At the moment, that simply isn’t the case.”
The review’s remit is broad and ambitious. According to the Evening Standard, it will not only scrutinize up to ten services but also “review the maternity and neonatal system, bringing together the findings of past reviews into one national set of actions.” The terms of reference and the selection of the ten units will be developed with input from families in Leeds, Sussex, and Nottingham. Notably, the review is distinct from the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, which Streeting himself will chair, with a panel comprising both experts and families.
Underlying the urgency is a long history of missed opportunities and repeated warnings. Previous reviews and Care Quality Commission reports have flagged “systemic failings that are at the heart of the issues facing maternity and neonatal care issues time and time again: unsafe staffing, poor workplace cultures, and not listening to women.” Yet, as Walton pointed out, “there has been no forward movement.” The RCM is also urging the review to highlight not just failings but also examples of good maternity care, in hopes of spreading best practices across the NHS.
Baroness Amos brings a formidable résumé to the task. Appointed a Labour peer in 1997, she made history as the UK’s first Black Cabinet member in 2003 and later served as a senior United Nations official from 2010 to 2015. Her current role as head of University College, Oxford, marks another milestone as the first Black person to lead that institution. Streeting, in a letter to families, underscored his confidence: “I would not have appointed her unless I was 100% certain about her integrity and commitment to this work.”
As the investigation prepares to get underway, the stakes could hardly be higher. Thousands of midwives, maternity support workers, and families are looking to Baroness Amos and the government for not just answers, but tangible change. For now, all eyes are on the next steps: the appointment of the expert panel, the selection of trusts to be reviewed, and whether this time, the promises of reform will finally translate into safer care for mothers and babies across England.
