The Royal College of Midwives has called on the Government to take urgent action to address long‑standing staffing shortages in maternity services, warning that continued understaffing is placing women, babies and maternity staff at risk.
The warning comes as part of the RCM’s Safe Staffing = Safe Care campaign, which sets out five clear priorities aimed at improving maternity safety and ensuring women and families receive high‑quality care across England.
The campaign was formally launched in Parliament this week, with the backing of 50 MPs and peers. Midwives, maternity support workers and student midwives spoke at the event about the reality of providing care in overstretched services and the daily pressures of working in chronically understaffed environments.
They highlighted how safe, sustainable staffing levels are essential not only for immediate safety but also for long‑term improvements in maternity outcomes.
The RCM says there is overwhelming evidence that safe staffing levels are critical to preventing avoidable harm. Despite this, progress has been slow. Over the past decade, 748 recommendations on maternity safety have been made, yet implementation has been inconsistent.
Concerns have been heightened by new data published last week showing that maternal deaths in the UK are 20% higher than they were ten years ago, a trend the RCM says underlines the urgent need for workforce reform and sustained investment.
As part of the Safe Staffing = Safe Care campaign, the RCM is calling on the Government to take action in five priority areas:
- Deliver safe staffing through dedicated, multi‑year funding via a national maternity and neonatal action plan, ending chronic understaffing in hospital and community settings.
- Protect a learning profession by providing midwives and maternity support workers with 52 hours of protected, salaried time to supervise students and complete essential continuing professional development.
- Strengthen professional leadership by mandating a Director of Midwifery in every NHS Trust and ensuring sufficient consultant midwives are in post as a non‑negotiable standard.
- Improve health and prevention by funding protected time for midwives and maternity support workers to develop cultural competence, helping deliver safe and equitable care for every mother and birthing person.
- Invest in maternity estates by prioritising unsafe and deteriorating facilities for urgent improvement through ring‑fenced capital funding.
The RCM argues that addressing staffing shortages must be treated as a long‑term investment, not a short‑term fix. Safe staffing, strong leadership, ongoing training and modern facilities are essential to improving retention, supporting staff wellbeing and delivering consistently high‑quality maternity care.
The organisation stresses that prevention and culturally competent care play a central role in tackling persistent inequalities affecting maternal and neonatal outcomes.
Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, commented:
“When midwives are working excessively long shifts without a break, driving home exhausted and returning the next day expected to provide safe, compassionate care, we have to ask: how can we expect exhausted midwives to provide the safest care? It’s simply unacceptable to ask this of our dedicated maternity staff in this day and age. As part of our campaign, we’re telling the Government: enough is enough.”
The Royal College of Midwives says it stands ready to work constructively with the Government to deliver meaningful and lasting change.
Without urgent action, it warns that workforce pressures will continue to put unacceptable strain on maternity services, with serious consequences for women, babies and the professionals who care for them.
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