Bereaved families in Leeds are finally seeing the results of years of campaigning, as Health Secretary Wes Streeting has announced an independent inquiry into repeated maternity and neonatal service failures at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The move follows harrowing accounts from parents who say their babies were harmed or died due to systemic failings at the trust, and who have long demanded both accountability and change.
Streeting, who met with affected families on October 16, 2025, described being "shocked" by their stories. He stated, "This stark contradiction between scale and safety standards is precisely why I'm taking this exceptional step to order an urgent inquiry in Leeds." According to BBC, he added, "We have to give the families the honesty and accountability they deserve and end the normalisation of deaths of women and babies in maternity units."
The inquiry comes in the wake of a BBC investigation revealing that at least 56 baby deaths and two maternal deaths at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust over the past five years might have been preventable. The trust, which oversees both Leeds General Infirmary and St James's University Hospital, was downgraded to "inadequate" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in June 2025. Inspectors cited serious risks to women and babies, highlighting a "blame culture" that left staff afraid to raise concerns and incidents.
Bereaved families, including Fiona Winser-Ramm and Dan Ramm, Amarjit Kaur and Mandip Singh Matharoo, and Lauren Caulfield, have been at the forefront of the campaign for an inquiry. Fiona Winser-Ramm, whose daughter Aliona died in January 2020 after what an inquest found to be a series of gross failures, said, "We have all been thrust into this life that none of us should be living. None of us should know each other. The only place that we should ever potentially have become friends is through a baby or a child playgroup – instead, we are supporting each other through the worst possible time."
She added, "Our girls all deserved a voice. They all deserved a life, and we deserved that life with them. Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust has stolen that from all of us. We now have to be the voice for our children, but that also goes wider to being the voice for other women and children, because everybody deserves to be safeguarded."
Amarjit Kaur and Mandip Singh Matharoo lost their daughter Asees, who was stillborn in January 2024 at Leeds General Infirmary. Amarjit said, "We know we are not alone, and that there's other families that have experienced what we have. They tell us this shouldn't have happened but there is nothing about what is being done to make sure it doesn’t happen again."
Lauren Caulfield, whose daughter Grace was stillborn in 2022, described her experience with the trust as being "gaslit and almost blamed for a lot of things that happened." She said, "We shouldn't, as bereaved grieving parents, have to do this for so many years. It was quite a relief to know that, you know, we don't have to keep fighting."
Bereaved families have called for Donna Ockenden, the senior midwife who led the review into maternity failings at Shrewsbury and Telford and is currently leading the Nottingham inquiry, to chair the Leeds investigation. According to The Independent, Fiona Winser-Ramm said, "It is imperative that Donna Ockenden is appointed to lead this review." Lauren Caulfield echoed this, stating, "No-one else has the experience, the expertise, the trust of families and staff, the compassion and the capability to investigate a trust of this size and we’ve been very clear with the secretary of state that it must be Donna and her team."
The scale of the problem is vast and, as Fiona Winser-Ramm noted, "There are so many people who don't even know they are victims yet and it is going to snowball at an alarming pace." The BBC has spoken to more than 70 families who have described traumatic care, with cases stretching back over 15 years. The inquiry is expected to be similar in scope to the ongoing investigation into Nottingham University Hospitals Foundation Trust, which is examining around 2,500 cases and is currently the largest of its kind in the UK. The final report from Nottingham is due in June 2026.
Streeting’s decision to move beyond a national rapid review, which had included Leeds among 14 hospital trusts under the leadership of Baroness Valerie Amos, marks a significant shift. According to a report by the National Audit Office, the UK is spending billions on negligence claims linked to NHS maternity service failures, underscoring the urgency for systemic change.
The trust’s leadership has responded with apologies and pledges for reform. Brendan Brown, who became chief executive in September 2025 after Professor Phil Wood’s departure, issued an "unreserved apology to families whose babies have sadly died or who have had a poor experience when receiving care in our hospitals." Brown acknowledged, "We know that in the past we have not listened to families well enough, or responded to their concerns compassionately, and we are determined to do better." He added, "We want to work with the families who have used our services to understand their experiences so that we can make real and lasting improvements."
Brown emphasized that the trust had already taken "significant steps to address improvements to our maternity and neonatal services, following reviews by the Care Quality Commission and NHS England." A maternity care review in July 2025 made 101 improvement recommendations, and the trust is part of a national investigation announced by Streeting. Despite these efforts, Brown conceded, "We know there is still much more to do, and we are absolutely committed to ensuring that every family receives safe, compassionate, inclusive and high quality care."
The inquiry’s terms of reference and its chair have yet to be announced as of October 20, 2025. Families and campaigners argue that police involvement is also needed, as has occurred in other high-profile maternity scandals. Many are calling for answers about what Sir Julian Hartley, the former chief executive of Leeds Trust for ten years until 2023 and now the head of the Care Quality Commission, knew about poor maternity care during his tenure. Sir Julian told the BBC that he was "absolutely committed to ensuring good patient care across all services, including maternity, but clearly this commitment wasn't enough to prevent some families suffering pain and loss." He added, "I am truly sorry for this."
The Leeds investigation now joins a growing list of independent inquiries into maternity failings across England, including those at Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury, East Kent, and Nottingham. The hope among families and campaigners is that this inquiry will finally provide the transparency, accountability, and change that have been so long overdue.
As the city awaits the next steps, the voices of bereaved parents serve as a powerful reminder: behind every statistic is a family forever changed, and a system that must do better to protect the most vulnerable.
