National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation
Baroness Valerie Amos was appointed to chair the national maternity and neonatal investigation on 14 August 2025. This rapid, independent investigation was ordered by Health and Social Care Secretary of State Wes Streeting to provide truth to affected families and drive urgent improvements in patient care and safety, following a series of meetings between the Secretary of State and bereaved families. It is also part of a wider package of actions to boost accountability and safety in the NHS. The investigation will examine maternity and neonatal services in 12 NHS trusts, but also across the whole maternity system, incorporating the views of affected families and their representatives. The aim of the investigation is to develop one set of national recommendations to drive improvements in maternity and neonatal care across England, reduce inequalities in the delivery of these services and help affected families to receive justice and accountability. The investigation aims to ensure that the experiences of women, babies and families and the local investigations of maternity and neonatal services are used to inform the set of recommendations.
Call for Evidence
On 20 January 2026, the Investigation launched an online Call for Evidence asking women and families across England to share their experiences of maternity and neonatal care to help inform its national recommendations.
Chair
The Right Honourable
Baroness Amos LG CH PC
Baroness Valerie Amos was appointed as the Chair of the independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation in August 2025.
Valerie Amos has been Master of University College, Oxford since 2020. Prior to this she was the Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She was the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from 2010 to 2015. Before her appointment to the UN, she served as British High Commissioner to Australia.
Valerie Amos was an adviser to the Mandela Government on leadership and change management issues and was Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission between 1989 and 1994. She was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2001-2003, Secretary of State for International Development 2003 and Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the (Privy) Council 2003-2007.
She has served on the board of several Foundations including the UN and Mastercard Foundations and is co-founder and Patrin of the Amos Bursary. She was also a non-executive Director at the University College London Hospital Trust and chair of the Board of Governors of the Royal College of Nursing Institute.
Expert advisors
Dr Alison Bedford Russell
Dr Alison Bedford Russell was the Neonatal Clinical Co-Director for the Liverpool Neonatal Partnership, comprising Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and Liverpool Women’s (retired July 2025). Prior to this Dr Bedford Russell held senior roles across England and internationally, including Deputy Division Chief Neonatal Clinical Services (Doha, Qatar), Medical Director at Birmingham Women’s, and Deputy Chief Medical Officer at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Bedford Russell previously held neonatal consultant roles at Heart of England NHS Trust, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and St George’s London and was Hon Associate Clinical Professor, Warwick Medical School. She was Clinical Director for the West Midlands Maternity and Newborn Strategic Clinical Network and clinical lead for the South West Midlands neonatal network. Her research interests include neonatal infection and immunology and she was a founder member of the Newborn Life Support resuscitation training course.
Professor Joht Singh Chandan
Professor Joht Singh Chandan is a Clinical Professor of Public Health at the University of Birmingham. In 2024, he was appointed as the youngest Clinical Professor in the UK, reflecting his exceptional contributions to research, policy, and public health practice at a national and international level. In 2025, he was appointed an NIHR Research Professor, leading work to make our national healthcare service trauma-informed.
His research focuses on identifying and addressing health inequalities, particularly among underserved and marginalised populations, including individuals affected by violence, abuse, and gambling-related harms. Joht has published over 140 peer-reviewed articles and has secured more than £71 million in research funding as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator.
He leads several flagship research programmes, including as co-lead of the NIHR Maternity Disparities Challenge, co-lead of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Violence Against Women and Children, and Health Inequalities Lead at Birmingham Health Partners. He also serves as a scientific advisor to the Lancet Commission on Violence Against Women and Children and advises the UK Government National Youth Strategy.
Dr Christine Ekechi
Dr Christine Ekechi is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, with a specialist interest in early pregnancy and gynaecology. Since her consultant appointment in 2015, she has been a clinical leader within one of the UK’s most respected tertiary women’s health units, driving excellence in maternity, gynaecology and patient-centred, evidence-based care.
Alongside her clinical work, Christine is a nationally influential voice on women’s health equity. She is the Founder and former Co- Chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Race Equality Taskforce—the first initiative of its kind in any medical Royal College worldwide—bringing together leaders across healthcare, academia, and government to reduce disparities in reproductive and maternity outcomes. She currently serves as an Expert Obstetric Advisor to the Department of Health and Social Care’s National Maternity Investigation and provides strategic expertise to the NHS Race and Health Observatory, Baby Lifeline, and multiple university research, policy and parliamentary groups.
Christine has contributed expert evidence to the Women & Equalities Select Committee, provided expertise as a specialist advisor for the policy commission on effective, safe and accessible medicines in Pregnancy, advised Ministers on health inequalities, maternal outcomes, and COVID-19 policy, and supported national programmes aiming to improve maternity safety, personalised care, and equitable access to reproductive services. She also chaired the 2025 National Fibroid Treatment Pathways Roundtable at the RCOG, working to standardise care across England.
A published author in The Lancet, BMJ, Reproductive Health Matters and other peer-reviewed journals, Christine also contributes chapters to major O&G textbooks and supervises postgraduate research. Her academic interests span maternal and gynaecological health, reproductive justice, early pregnancy care, and the intersection of race and health outcomes.
Christine is committed to public engagement and health communication. She is a regular expert contributor on BBC Radio 5 Live’s This Time of The Month, helping to demystify women’s health topics for a national audience. She is also an invited speaker at national and international conferences, major corporations, and policy forums, including Google, The Financial Times, Westminster Health Forum, and Harvard Medical School.
With a career dedicated to advancing safe, equitable, and high-quality care, Christine brings a rare combination of clinical expertise, policy influence, and public leadership to the landscape of women’s health in the UK and beyond. Her work is driven by a commitment to safe, equitable, and evidence-based reproductive and maternity care for all women.
Professor Alexander Heazell MBChB(Hons) PhD FRCOG
Alexander Heazell is Professor of Obstetrics and Director of the Tommy’s Stillbirth Research Centre, University of Manchester, UK, the Regional Lead Obstetrician for the North-West of England and Consultant Obstetrician at Saint Mary’s Hospital.
He graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2000 and began his clinical training in the West Midlands before completing his PhD in Manchester in 2008. His research portfolio includes basic science, clinical and qualitative research studies to gain better understanding in order to understand the causes and consequences of placental dysfunction, to prevent stillbirth and improve care for parents after stillbirth or perinatal death.
Dr Heazell has received over £5M of grant income and has published over 300 research papers and received national and international awards for his work on stillbirth and placental dysfunction, and for improving care. He led the recent Stillbirth Priority Setting Partnership and was one of the team for the 2016 Lancet Ending Preventable Stillbirth Series.
He is a past chair of the International Stillbirth Alliance. He has led national studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle and an evaluation of PMRT reviews and MNSI investigations.
Prof. Heazell is the national lead for Rainbow Clinic, a specialist clinical service for parents in pregnancy after loss. He passionately believes that a better understanding of placental disease will improve outcomes for mothers and babies.
Dr Bill Kirkup
Bill Kirkup qualified as a doctor in 1974, and trained in obstetrics and gynaecology, later gynaecological oncology. Subsequently he switched to Public Health and medical management in the North-East, later Associate Chief Medical Officer for England.
He volunteered to work on Public Health and Reconstruction as a civilian alongside military operations in Kosovo (1999), Iraq (2003, 2005) and Afghanistan (2007/08).
Since retiring he has chaired independent investigations, including Oxford Children’s Heart Surgery, Jimmy Savile at Broadmoor, Morecambe Bay Maternity and Liverpool Community, and was the medical member of the Hillsborough Independent Panel
More recently, he chaired the Independent Investigation into East Kent Maternity Services.
Dr Edile Murdoch
Dr Edile Murdoch is a consultant neonatologist at NHS Lothian, Edinburgh and previously Addenbrooke’s hospital, Cambridge. She has held leadership roles across Scotland and England including clinical director of obstetric and neonatal services, chair of the Scottish Perinatal Network’s Significant Adverse Event Review group, S.E Scotland neonatal network lead and co-chair of the BAPM palliative care framework group. Dr Murdoch has contributed to MBRRACE-UK perinatal confidential enquiries into the care of migrant women and asian, black and white women who have experienced a stillbirth or neonatal death and co-authored the Scottish National Bereavement Care Pathway. Dr Murdoch is on the oversight panel for the independent review of maternity and neonatal care at Swansea Bay University Health Board, and previously a member of the DoH Northern Ireland significant adverse incident redesign programme. She is currently the clinical lead for the recently launched Maternity Outcome Signal System (MOSS) programme (NHSE England). She is also a member of the oversight panel panel for the all Wales Maternity and neonatal assessment.
Professor Julia Sanders
Julia is a NMC registered nurse and midwife with her nursing experience being in adult intensive care. Julia has over 35 years’ clinical midwifery experience within the NHS including as a Consultant Midwife at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. Throughout her career Julia has worked closely with midwifery, obstetric, anaesthetic and neonatal colleagues to develop and provide safe evidenced based compassionate care for women, babies and families.
Julia has held the post of Professor of Clinical Midwifery at Cardiff University since 2017 with her research methodological expertise being in randomised controlled trials and the use of NHS and other routine data for research purposes. Julia has wide research interests with studies including exploring the effectiveness of the Family Nurse Partnership Programme in England and Scotland, the safety of waterbirth for mothers and their babies, improving care during postpartum haemorrhage and the support of infant feeding.
Lesley Sharkey
Lesley is Nurse Director at NHS Tayside. She began her midwifery career in 1996 and has since worked across a wide range of women’s health and early years settings in both Scotland and England. Her experience spans inpatient and community services, where she has held clinical, managerial, leadership, and strategic roles in nursing and midwifery. She has a strong interest in governance, patient safety, and continuous learning to improve care.
Lesley has served as a Director of Midwifery and is now Nurse Director for Acute Services. As a Scottish Quality and Safety Fellow, she gained experience in quality improvement and leadership, which she continues to embed in her work.
Her recent contributions include serving on the expert review panel for the Northern Ireland national review of maternity services, focusing on governance for the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority. She has also acted as an external panel member for several Scottish Boards to support maternity service improvements. Recently, She has been involved in developing key national frameworks focusing on preceptorship and also NMC guidance to support women’s choices.
Throughout her career, Lesley developed a passion for individualised, relational care, recognising its profound impact on people using services and the staff providing them. She chaired a subgroup of the national ministerial taskforce working with the Scottish Government to produce recommendations for nursing and midwifery, particularly around wellbeing for staff.
Lesley’s core values centre on hearing and respecting those who use services, promoting shared decision-making, and ensuring safety above all.
About the Investigation
Click on the link below to find out more about the Investigation