Inquiry into the safety of maternity services

The final report of our independent inquiry into the safety of maternity services in England has now been published: Safe Births: Everybody's business.

The report concludes that the overwhelming majority of births in England are safe, despite growing pressures on maternity services. However, it suggests that the lack of a systematic approach to ensuring safety across maternity services is creating unnecessary risks and calls for a range of practical improvements.

• Download a summary of the report (103 kb)
• Download the full version of the report (624 kb)

The report is the result of a year's work by an independent panel commissioned by the King's Fund. The inquiry is indebted to all those who contributed (further details can be found in Annex 2 of the report).

Next steps

Attend our seminar series

We are running a series of three seminars in 2008 to follow up some of the main findings from the report.
Find out more and book on to an event

Tell us what you think 

The King's Fund will be developing a programme of activities with those working in maternity services in order to take forward the recommendations. To do this, we would like your views on how we can best work with professionals to make maternity services safer.
Give us your feedback

Stay informed 

If you would like to be kept informed of any developments in this area, please register to receive King's Fund email updates, ticking 'maternity' as an interest area.
Register to receive King's Fund update emails

Read our press release

Majority of births in England are safe but lack of systematic approach to safety creates risks, independent inquiry concludes

• Resources on the safety of maternity services

• The inquiry team and panel
• More on the inquiry process
• Maternity services reading room