Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme

Led by NHS England, the National Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme’s (MatNeoSIP) mission is to create and embed the conditions for all staff to improve the safety and outcomes of maternal and neonatal care by reducing unwarranted variation and provide a high-quality healthcare experience for all women, babies and families across England.

Read more about the National MatNeo SIP.

The MatNeoSIP aims to reduce the rates of maternal and neonatal deaths, stillbirths and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth by 50% by 2025 and to reduce the national rate of preterm births from 8% to 6% by 2025.


Project overview

The Health Innovation Network is working in partnership with our regional Trusts, Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems (LMNS), Public Health leads as well as commissioners and women and their families to support the MatNeoSIP.

We have three projects that we are supporting from the beginning of the 2024/25 financial year as follows:


Optimisation and Stabilisation of the Preterm Infant

The aims are:

  • To contribute to the national ambition set out in Better Births to reduce the rates of maternal and neonatal deaths, stillbirths and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth by 50% by 2025.
  • To contribute to the national ambition set out in Safer Maternity Care to reduce the national rate of preterm births from 8% to 6%
  • Improve the safety and outcomes of maternal and neonatal care by reducing unwarranted variation and providing a high-quality healthcare experience for all women, babies, and families across maternity and neonatal care settings in England.

We have been supporting our south London trusts to implement and sustain improvements for the nine elements of optimal preterm care, including the adoption of a communication and counselling tool for parents and clinicians. Click here to find out more.


Early Recognition and Management of Deterioration in Perinatal Care

The aims are:

  • To support the development of a national pathway approach for the effective management of maternal and neonatal deterioration using the Prevent Identify Escalate Respond (PIER) framework across all settings by March 2025.
  • Work with key stakeholders to support the development of a national Maternal Early Warning Score (MEWS) by March 2021 and spread to all providers by March 2025.
  • Support the spread and adoption of the Neonatal Early Warning Trigger and Track score (NEWTT) to all maternity and neonatal services by March 2025.
  • Reduce perinatal health inequalities.

 Find out more about the work we do to support this.


The Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme

The aims are:

  • To improve the quality of care by enabling leaders to drive change with a better understanding of the relationship between leadership, safety improvement and safety culture.
  • To support perinatal leadership teams to create and craft the conditions for a positive culture of safety and continuous improvement, enabling a more psychologically safe, collaborative, and supportive workplace.

We're here to help

If you have any questions or would like more information about MatNeo and the local learning system, please contact Hebe Davies-Colley, MatNeoSIP Lead and Project Manager in the Patient Safety and Experience Team.

Get in touch

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