Donna Ockenden appointed to chair Sussex maternity inquiry
The Health Secretary has agreed that Donna Ockenden will chair an independent inquiry into maternity failings in Sussex. It comes after lobbying by bereaved families and a joint investigation by the New Statesman and BBC News. In February, we revealed that the deaths of at least 55 babies might have been avoidable had they and their mothers received better care from University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
Streeting met with families this afternoon (15 April) at Brighton’s Leonardo Hotel, where he agreed the scope of the inquiry and confirmed that the former midwife would lead it. Speaking to the New Statesman afterwards, he said that Ockenden’s “superpower has been building trust and confidence amongst bereaved and harmed families, who have frankly lost all trust and faith in the state and in the NHS as a result of the harm that they have been through.” The Truth for Our Babies group (TFOB), which represents 21 families whose babies died in Sussex between 2020 and 2025, said today marked a “significant and welcome step forward” in what has been “a long, exhausting and deeply emotional fight.”
The group said that they have been “calling for this review for two years, all while living with devastating loss and harm caused to us and our babies… We are grateful that Wes Streeting has listened to campaigning families and recognised the need to appoint Donna Ockenden.” Ockenden led the maternity inquiry into Shrewsbury and Telford, and her four-year investigation into care in Nottingham is due to be published in June. Encompassing more than 2,400 families, it is the largest maternity investigation in NHS history. Sussex families have long been clear in their wish for Ockenden to lead any review into their care, but her appointment was initially rejected by the Department of Health and Social Care. Instead, it put forward three other names for the families to consider, leading to an impasse.
This is the second time in the space of a month the DHSC has reversed decisions that ruled Ockenden out of chairing local maternity inquiries. In March, after intense lobbying from families in Leeds, Streeting agreed that the former midwife would chair an inquiry into harms caused by maternity services run by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. “Candidly, my anxiety about Donna has always been whether – given the work I’ve asked her to do in Leeds and the work she’s concluding in Nottingham – she would have the capacity to do the Sussex review,” Streeting explained. However, he had been reassured that it was possible to balance the workload “in a way that will continue to hold the [Sussex] families’ confidence”. Ockenden said it was an “honour” to have been asked to chair the review. “I am absolutely aware of the responsibility I have to the families and babies across Sussex.”
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A group of nine Sussex families were first promised an independent review of their cases by Streeting in June 2025 – ten months ago. By February, families told the New Statesman and BBC there had been no progress. In those eight intervening months, the group had grown to 15 families, all of whom had babies die under the care of University Hospitals Sussex. Following our investigation, more families came forward: the group now stands at 21. But, they argue, this likely represents a fraction of those who had been harmed.
Responses to freedom of information requests made by TFOB show that the deaths of at least 55 babies at Sussex hospitals between 2019 and 2023 might have been avoidable. Whenever a baby dies after 22 weeks (including from miscarriage and stillbirth), hospitals are required to carry out an internal investigation. Between 2019 and 2023, University Hospitals Sussex carried out 227 such reviews – known as Perinatal Mortality Review Tools (PMRTs). At least 55 cases were given grades of C or D by the trust, indicating that different care either “may” have or was “likely” to have made a difference to the outcome for these babies.
The trust points to recent improvements in these figures, saying that in 2024 there were three baby deaths identified in which changes in the mothers’ care might have, or were likely to have, made a difference. With these figures included, combined with other cases they have identified, the TFOB group told the Health Secretary they believe at least 62 babies’ deaths may have been avoidable at the trust between 2019 and 2025. These figures may well be conservative. The group points out that from their own experiences, in at least half of cases in which external investigations or legal action indicated there had been care failings, the internal review had said there were none.
While we now know that Ockenden will chair the Sussex review, its scope and timescale are not being made public. Cross-government approval is required and announcements relating to local areas are not permitted during the run up to the English council elections in May. It is understood, however, that the inquiry will include a significantly larger number than was originally intended, or asked for, from the families. Other inquiries led by Donna Ockenden – both in Nottingham and the Leeds investigation announced just last month – have operated on an “opt-out basis”. This means cases that occurred during the period being investigated are automatically included unless families choose otherwise.
The Sussex families have campaigned for something similar, there being no obvious reason why their inquiry should be treated differently. Speaking this evening, Ockenden said she and her team would “proactively reach out to ensure that the voices of seldom heard families are heard through this review.” The Health Secretary said that while he was not able to comment on the specifics due to election rules and final terms of reference being worked on, “this is very much an Ockenden-style inquiry.” It will include “both bereavement and also the harm and injury that’s caused to mothers and babies, as well as the fatalities,” Streeting confirmed.
This is something families were insistent upon going into the meeting – that harmed families be included in the inquiry’s remit. Marija Pantelic was one of the first four mothers to come together to call for better maternity care in Sussex. Her son, Sasha, died in Brighton in January 2022. Just days before, her concerns that he was moving less frequently than he had been were dismissed. Sasha’s death would always have been included: her family was one of the original nine Streeting promised he would get answers for. But, Pantelic argued, “as a mother and a health inequalities researcher, I cannot accept a process that closes the door behind the few loudest voices.” As a public health academic who has spent 15 years studying health inequalities, Marija Pantelic wrote in the BMJ: “A comprehensive, opt-out review – one that includes every harmed and bereaved family and actively reaches marginalised groups – is essential to understanding and preventing avoidable harm.”
Without a comprehensive “opt-out” approach, Sussex families fear that “opportunities to prevent future harm could be lost”. Crucial stories would be missed, left unheard without lessons learned. Stories like those of 32-year-old Hayley Taggart, who was among those who met with the Health Secretary earlier today.
Taggart was left with life changing injuries after the birth of her daughter at Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital in February 2022. It was a high-risk pregnancy, resulting in a planned caesarean section at 29 weeks. Following the birth, Taggart repeatedly told staff that she was in a lot of pain; that her body was swollen.
As a midwife who worked for the trust at the time (and who had given birth twice before), she knew things were not right. She was worried she had an infection. But doctors ignored her, she told the New Statesman. At one point, they berated her for being overweight. Another laughed at her.
Taggart visited the hospital five times in the six weeks following her discharge, feeling unwell. She had a high temperature, swelling and her C-section wound was oozing. “I knew something wasn’t right, but I wasn’t listened to,” Taggart said. She was prescribed multiple courses of antibiotics. “I trusted the people I worked alongside with my life and my wellbeing, yet I was left in constant pain, repeatedly sent home and made to feel that I was overreacting.”
“Just before the six-week mark, I ended up passing my placenta on the floor at home,” Taggart described. She went straight to A&E. Despite the previous multiple hospital visits, no one had recognised that Taggart had a retained placenta, following an error made during the birth. After a baby is born a mother must also “deliver” the placenta that has kept the baby alive in the womb. It was only when Taggart sought emergency care that medics discovered a significant portion of the placenta had been retained. She required surgery to remove it.
Despite the surgery, Taggart continued to suffer persistent pelvic pain and ongoing bleeding for months. While it was suggested that she could have further exploratory surgery, in August 2023, Taggart underwent a total hysterectomy. “I wasn’t able to look after my kids properly because I was in constant pain,” she explained. “I just went straight to the hysterectomy.”
Today, four years’ on from the birth, Taggart is still on morphine daily and is receiving treatment for psychological trauma. She has been unable to return to her role as a midwife at the Trust since the incident.
While not able to discuss details of individual cases, when the New Statesman approached University Hospitals Sussex about several maternity cases, the trust said it offered its sincere apologies to the women and families who had shared their experiences of loss and poor care. Sussex CEO Andy Heeps said that the trust had employed 40 midwives since 2022 but recognised “there will always be more we can do to improve”. Attempts would be made to ensure that Taggart met with senior maternity staff, after communications between her and the trust had stalled.
The final terms of reference and scope of the Sussex inquiry will not be confirmed now until after the May elections. But for the first time in years, this group of harmed families now has hope that they will finally get the answers they have been seeking, not just for themselves, but for every family that has been affected. “It is about accountability, but it’s also about working to ensure that no other family has to endure what we have been through,” the TFOB said.
Streeting said he leaves Brighton today “confident” the government and families had reached “consensus” that a process is now in place that would hold their confidence and trust. “Given what they’ve been through, that was one of the most – if not the most – important factor to me.”
[Further reading: Streeting’s maternity taskforce to start work next week]
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