The NHS is one of the safest healthcare systems in the world within which to give birth. However, avoidable errors within maternity can still occur, which can have devastating consequences for the child, mother, and wider family, as well as the NHS staff involved. Although secondary to the human impact, such incidents can also result in a significant financial cost to the NHS.
Obstetric claims (claims related to maternity care) made up 57% of the total estimated new claims reported to us (NHS Resolution) in 2023/2024, despite only representing 13% of the total number of claims in this period. We are committed to working with our partners to improve maternal and neonatal safety. To help achieve this, our Early Notification (EN) Scheme investigates specific brain injuries which happened at birth, to find out if they were caused by clinical negligence.
Clinical (or medical) negligence is when medical professionals or organisations, who owe a legal duty of care, do not meet the expected standard of care, causing injury to a patient or the patient’s condition becoming worse.
We do this by asking members of our Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) to tell us of maternity incidents which meet a certain clinical criteria.
The EN Scheme aims to:
- investigate whether families are eligible for compensation, reduce legal costs, make prompt payments to those eligible for support with care needs, and improve the experience of families who are making a clinical negligence claim and staff affected by the incident;
- share what we have learned promptly with the trust involved and the wider NHS to support improvements in safety and prevent the same things happening again;
- preserve evidence, to make sure we can respond to cases that a family may choose to bring at a later date;
- make it easier for families to get compensation, and meet their immediate needs where possible; and
- try to reduce the overall effect of the cost to the NHS.
Since the scheme was launched, we have seen some early successes, including a reduction in the time between incidents happening and us being told about them. In some cases, there has also been a reduction in the time from us being told about an incident to a decision on liability. Being told about incidents early has helped us to encourage trusts to be open about incidents with families and make the most of opportunities to learn. Further information for parents, family members or carers.
Further information for parents, family members or carers
If you are a parent, family member or carer – please go to our Early notification page for parents, family members or carers for more information about the scheme.
Further information for Trusts or member organisations
If you are a trust or member organisation, please go to our Early Notification page for NHS trusts or member organisations for more information. We have produced a number of case stories to help identify potential risks in clinical areas, promote learning and prevent fewer incidents like these occurring in the future.
Published reports
We are currently evaluating the Early Notification Scheme to better understand its effect and any areas for improvement.
The second Early Notification report
Our second report, published on 29 September 2022, provides an overview of the scheme’s progress since the first report in 2018.
It gives an update on the progress of the key recommendations we made in the first report and reflects on changes and improvements made to the scheme since its launch in 2018. It also provides an analysis of the main clinical themes, based on a small group of cases, and makes recommendations to further improve outcomes for affected families.
Visit our dedicated page for the second report, where you can also find a webinar which gives a detailed overview of the report and an infographic with the key messages.
The first Early Notification report
Published September 2019, our Early Notification scheme progress report: collaboration and improved experience for families provides an overview of the scheme and an analysis of the main clinical themes, based on a small group of cases from year one of the scheme (2017/2018).
Visit our dedicated page for the first report where there is also a summary of the Early Notification scheme progress report.
Contact
Please contact us if you would like to discuss the EN Scheme. You can email us at nhsr.enteam@nhs.net or call us on 0207 811 6263.
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