Alison Bennett's Monday Mail: Ockenden appointed

Donna Ockenden appointed to lead Sussex maternity inquiry

Last Wednesday I was with the bereaved and harmed families from Truth for Our Babies who were meeting the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting in Brighton. 

After two years of campaigning, Wes Streeting has finally listened and accepted their call for a full independent review of maternity services at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. Critically the review will be chaired by the highly respected midwife Donna Ockenden who has conducted similar reviews into other hospital trusts’ maternity services. 

You can read the government’s press release here.

Supporting these families has been humbling. What began as a group of nine families is now over sixty whose babies’ lives could have been saved with better maternity care. Whilst I and other Sussex MPs have advocated for them in Parliament, last week’s breakthrough is down to their determination to secure this review. Sitting with those families on Wednesday, I was angry that securing this review has been dragged out over so many months. They should not have been put through this.

The full terms of reference for the review will be published next month. In the meantime if you want to understand why a full review is necessary, I would recommend this article in the British Medical Journal written by Marija Pantelic. Marija is one of the parents whose baby died and is also an associate professor in public health.

Mandelson

Given the gravity of events around the world, the ongoing Mandelson saga is frustrating and a distraction. It is also a problem entirely of No. 10’s own making. Starmer announcing that Mandelson would be ambassador before vetting was undertaken put the civil service in an invidious position. 

My colleague Calum Miller who is the Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock, was a senior civil servant before going into politics. He has an op ed in The Telegraph with a breakdown of the likely scenarios as to how Starmer ended up in this mess and, critically,  why each one is problematic. If you do not have a Telegraph subscription, there is also a summary on Bluesky. 

Any Questions

Last Friday’s episode of BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions came from Adastra Hall in Hassocks. The panellists included Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, former MP for Hassocks Andrew Griffith, Reform’s Danny Kruger, and for Labour, Baroness Smith. 

You can listen back on BBC Sounds.

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.

Best wishes,
Alison

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