2011 to 2028, eight categories of harm: the Leeds maternity review's terms are set
What happened
The independent review into maternity and neonatal care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust published its terms of reference on Monday 28 September 2026. Terms of reference are the rules of an inquiry: what it will look at, what it will leave out, how long it has, and who it answers to. The review is chaired by Donna Ockenden, a senior midwife who has led some of the best-known maternity investigations in England, including Shrewsbury and Telford, and the ongoing review in Nottingham. The review will look at care given between 1 January 2011 and 31 March 2028 - more than seventeen years, reaching into the future, so care given while the review is still running will also count. It will examine eight categories of severe harm or death during care at the trust: stillbirths, babies who died or were seriously harmed, mothers who died, and admissions to neonatal intensive care. Clinical case reviews are due to begin in November 2026, and the review is expected to report on or before 31 March 2029. Families who do not fit the strict criteria for a full case review can still take part. Their accounts will go into a separate 'family experiences' chapter. That matters, because inquiries have to draw a hard line somewhere, and people just outside it can feel shut out. Donna Ockenden said the terms of reference were 'reviewed and written together in partnership with families'. She described the day as 'a pivotal day for families, staff and the community in relation to the progress of the review'. The government first announced this review on 20 October 2025, and Ockenden was appointed chair on 10 March 2026. So today is not the start of the process - it is the point at which its shape became public.
Why this matters
Baroness Merron, the Minister for Women's Health and Maternity, said of the families involved: 'Their determination has brought us to this important point, and we owe it to them to listen and to establish the truth.' That sentence contains the reason this story matters. Reviews like this do not appear on their own. They happen because families who have lost a baby, or nearly lost their own life, keep asking questions for years after everyone else has moved on. Michelle Welsh MP, the government's Maternity and Neonatal Adviser, put it plainly: families have 'fought for answers for far too long'. The Leeds Maternity Families Group said the terms were about 'ensuring the snowball of truth continues to grow alongside the necessary accountability that must follow'. There is a pattern in English maternity care that is hard to ignore. Shrewsbury and Telford. East Kent. Nottingham. Now Leeds. Each time, families raised concerns and were not believed quickly enough, and a review later found that individual problems had been treated as one-offs rather than as a pattern. The seventeen-year window is the detail to hold on to. A review that only looked at the last two years would find a snapshot. One that looks back to 2011 can see whether the same thing kept happening, and whether anyone noticed. Leeds Teaching Hospitals is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, caring for thousands of families a year. This is not a small local matter. And if you are pregnant now, anywhere in the UK, the question these reviews keep answering is the same one: what happens when a patient says something is wrong?
What the evidence actually says
It is worth being precise here, because maternity stories can frighten people who are pregnant right now. What was published today is a set of terms of reference. It is not a finding, and it is not a report. Nobody has yet concluded what went wrong at Leeds, how often, or why. The clinical case reviews have not even started. So anything suggesting the review has found something is getting ahead of the facts. The findings are due by 31 March 2029. The announcement also does not say how many families are involved. That number has not been published for Leeds. The Nottingham review Ockenden also chairs is assessing more than 2,000 families' cases, but that is Nottingham, and it would be wrong to assume the numbers are similar. One more thing is worth understanding. A review of this kind is not a criminal trial, and it is not primarily about punishing individuals. Its job is to find out what happened and why, so it does not happen again. That design is deliberate: investigations that set out to blame people tend to get less honest information, and so learn less. That does not mean nobody is held to account. It means accountability usually follows the facts rather than leading them. Alongside the review, the government points to steps it says it has already taken: £187 million invested in maternity services since April, nearly 2,000 more midwives recruited, Martha's rule extended across wards, and a plan for England's first statutory Maternity and Neonatal Commissioner. Those are real commitments. Whether they change outcomes is a separate question, and the honest answer is that it is too early to know. Money and staff numbers are inputs. Safety is an outcome. The two are related, but they are not the same thing.
Qurexa perspective
We are a healthcare logistics and pharmacy delivery company in Lincolnshire, not a maternity service, and we are not going to pretend this story is about us. But one thread in it runs through almost everything we do. Every one of these reviews comes back to the same thing: someone told a healthcare professional that something felt wrong, and it took too long for that to be acted on. In our own small corner of healthcare - delivering prescriptions, helping people keep on top of their medicines - the lesson is the same. The person who notices a problem first is usually the patient, or the person caring for them. So when a customer tells us a medicine looks different from last month, or has been making them feel unwell, that is information, not a nuisance. We would rather check and be wrong than assume and be right. That is the whole of our perspective. The credit for today belongs to the families in Leeds, not to anyone commenting on it.
Practical advice
If you had care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals between 2011 and now and think your case may be relevant, you can contact the review team directly. Details are on the official review website at ockendenmaternityreview.org.uk and on the Leeds Teaching Hospitals website. You do not need a solicitor, and you do not need to have made a formal complaint before. If you do not think you meet the criteria, get in touch anyway. The 'family experiences' chapter exists for that reason, and the review team can tell you where you fit better than you can guess. Ask for your maternity records if you want them. You have a legal right to your own health records under UK data protection law. A copy is free, and the trust should normally respond within one month. If you are pregnant now, the practical point is about speaking up. If something feels wrong - reduced movements, pain, bleeding, or just a strong sense that something has changed - say so, and say it again if you are not satisfied. You are not being difficult. You are the person with the most information about your own body. Martha's rule is being rolled out across wards in England. It lets patients and families ask for an urgent second opinion from a different clinical team if they think someone is getting worse and it is not being recognised. Ask whether it is available where you are being treated. Write things down - dates, names, what was said. Not to build a case, but because memory under stress is unreliable, and a note made on the day beats a reconstruction made a year later. If today's news has brought difficult feelings back, Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, and the Birth Trauma Association both offer free support. You do not have to be part of a review to use them.
What to know
The independent review into maternity and neonatal care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust published its terms of reference on 28 September 2026. It is chaired by Donna Ockenden. It covers care given between 1 January 2011 and 31 March 2028, across eight categories of severe harm or death. Clinical case reviews begin in November 2026, and the review is due to report on or before 31 March 2029. Families who do not meet the criteria for a full case review can still contribute through a 'family experiences' chapter. No findings have been published. Nothing has been concluded about what went wrong, or how often. Today was about setting the rules, not announcing results. If you had care at the trust and think you may be affected, contact the review team through the official review website. If you are pregnant and worried by this story, keep speaking up when something feels wrong, and ask about Martha's rule where you are being cared for. The families who pushed for this review did so over years, with no guarantee it would happen. Today exists because they kept going. Sources: GOV.UK / Department of Health and Social Care, 'Leeds review sets out terms of reference for investigation', 28 September 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leeds-review-sets-out-terms-of-reference-for-investigation; Yorkshire Evening Post, 'Families welcome terms of review into Leeds maternity inquiry', 28 September 2026, https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/health/families-welcome-terms-of-review-into-leeds-maternity-inquiry-9209463; Hits Radio West Yorkshire, 'Families welcome scope of Leeds maternity inquiry as terms confirmed', 28 September 2026, https://www.hellorayo.co.uk/hits-radio/west-yorkshire/news/leeds-maternity-terms-confirmed; Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, 'Independent review into maternity and neonatal services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals', accessed 28 September 2026, https://www.leedsth.nhs.uk/services/maternity/improving-your-maternity-and-neonatal-services/independent-review-into-maternity-and-neonatal-services-at-leeds-teaching-hospitals/ This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a midwife, doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional. If you are pregnant and worried about your own health or your baby's, contact your midwife, your maternity unit or NHS 111 straight away.
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