Safe Births: Everybody's business

An independent inquiry into the safety of maternity services in England

Onora O'Neill
February 2008 | ISBN 978 1 85717 564 6 | 160 pages | £30.00

There is a level of public concern about the safety of maternity care in England, highlighted by a number of high-profile cases. The King’s Fund set up an independent inquiry to establish how safe maternity services are and to make practical recommendations for change. This report of their findings is based on oral and written submissions from individuals and organisations, wider literature on patient safety, and visits to maternity units. It has a number of practical recommendations, and underlying all of these is the message that ‘safe teams’ are the key to improving safety.

Download contents

The full report and a summary version can be downloaded using the links at the top of this page. However, you may prefer to download individual chapters using the links below.

• Title pages (636 kb)
• Introduction (637 kb)
• Chapter 1 - Patient safety and the maternity services (637 kb)
• Chapter 2 - Maternity services and their context (637 kb)
• Chapter 3 - Safe maternity teams (637 kb)
• Chapter 4 - Staffing for safety (637 kb)
• Chapter 5 - Training for safety (637 kb)
• Chapter 6 - Guidance to support safety (637 kb)
• Chapter 7 - Information for safety (637 kb)
• Chapter 8 - Safety - the trust board's primary responsibility (637 kb)
• Chapter 9 - National structures to support safety (637 kb)
• Chapter 10 - Recommendations (637 kb)
• Appendices (636 kb)
• References (637 kb)

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Supporting papers

See also