Perinatal Mortality
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS England's guidance entitled Saving babies’ lives version three: a care bundle for reducing perinatal mortality, updated on 24 April 2025, is implemented across NHS trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth
All trusts are implementing version three of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle to reduce the rates of stillbirth, preterm birth, and to optimise neonatal care. As of May 2025, 116 out of 120 trusts were fully compliant, which is a 10% increase since April last year.
Implementation is overseen through NHS Resolution’s Maternity Incentive Scheme, a financial incentive to encourage trusts to implement safety actions to improve maternity safety. Under Safety Action 6, National Health Service trusts are required to demonstrate that they are on track to comply with all elements of the care bundle.
To do this, trusts must meet quarterly with their integrated care board (ICB) to review implementation progress, and ICBs must confirm that providers are on track to full implementation for the trust. This local oversight approach is in line with the NHS Operating Framework.
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