Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of training for midwives on foetal alcohol syndrome.
Mr Philip Dunne
The new United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) low risk drinking guidelines provide the public with the most up to date scientific information to help people make informed decisions about their own drinking. The guideline for women who are pregnant or think they could become pregnant, is that the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, to reduce risks to the baby to a minimum.
The Government has mandated Health Education England (HEE) to provide national leadership on education, training and workforce development in the National Health Service.
In the Mandate from the Government to HEE for the period from April 2013 to March 2015 the Government stated that HEE should work with NHS England and others to ensure that sufficient midwives and other maternity staff are trained and available to provide every woman with personalised one-to-one care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and during the postnatal period.
HEE led, completed and published the findings of the Personalised Maternity Care Project, which made recommendations on how women who have mental health or substance misuse support requirements will receive appropriate support from specialised trained midwives.
The Personalised Maternity Care Project findings are available at:
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