The plan, which was laid out in a letter by NHSE chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey, is in response to this week's report by Baroness Amos.

The letter states: ‘This is a moment in our history that requires our collective leadership to act with real urgency in addressing the failings and harm experienced by women, babies and families and improve maternity and neonatal care.'

Sir Jim said the urgent actions will support, and report into, the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce as it develops the National Action Plan, which will be published in December.

They include:

• roll out of Martha's Rule across all maternity and neonatal services in 2026/27
• implementing a monthly cycle of collecting and analysing real-time patient outcomes and experience data at public boards
• establishing clear joint accountability at board level for maternity and neonatal services, with medical directors and chief nurses holding shared responsibility for oversight, performance and improvement
• NHSE launching an open conversation with NHS staff and leaders to identify how the recommendations can be implemented across the system
• national roll out of the Perinatal Equity and Anti-discrimination Programme by the end of 2026
• regularly review and action on trends identified by inequalities data dashboards and full implementation of the Maternal Care Bundle by March 2027
• reviewing staffing to ensure 24/7 availability and responsiveness across key workforce groups
• reviewing homebirth services ahead of the publication of NHSE homebirth standards and a homebirth framework
• reviewing response to patient safety incidents, complaints and concerns
• committing to delivering safe and effective triage, starting by completing a board-level audit within 3 months, supported by new NHS England guidance to be published this week
• implementing actions set out in the system letter following the Fuller and NUH reviews, including responding to the board assurance statement by 31 July and to the Human Tissue Authority requirement to review and assure completeness of incident records over the past 10 years.