The report is the latest positive news for the maternity unit, which last year retained its UNICEF Baby Friendly Gold Accreditation along with the neonatal unit, making it the only NHS trust in England to achieve gold status across both services.

Jonathan Coulter, chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘I am delighted that our maternity service has achieved a good overall rating.

‘The report recognises the many strengths within our maternity service and the outcome reflects the strong learning culture across HDFT. The way we develop skills, share knowledge, challenge ourselves and make continuous improvements for the benefit of patients is invaluable.

‘Our maternity team works incredibly hard to provide safe, professional care for those who access these services and I am pleased that this has been recognised by the CQC in their report.

‘We know that there are things we can do better and the report helpfully identifies some areas for improvement. These are welcome as it will help us to strengthen our service further, ensure we continue to deliver safe, effective and compassionate care, and provide the best possible experience for families across our region.'

The report highlights several areas of good practice, including: women reporting they felt listened to; a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty; 85% of staff saying they would recommend HDFT as a place to work – compared to 56% last year; specialist midwives providing good support across the service; safety events being investigated thoroughly and lessons learnt; and improved staff appraisal rates and staff training to help keep women safe.

The trust said it had taken several steps to address the CQC's recommendations and build on the strengths identified, including: increasing staffing and oversight of the maternity assessment centre; moving to a new electronic system for recording patient observations; and ordering new furniture and equipment to replace worn items.