HNY LMNS Equity and Equality Action Plan  

The Humber and North Yorkshire Local Maternity and Neonatal System vision is for maternity and neonatal services to be kind as well as safe for all, by supporting and enabling our teams to consistently provide personalised, supportive, and informed care, with empathy, understanding and compassion.

All women, birthing people and babies who use our maternity and neonatal services should receive the best care possible, which is why we are committed to reducing health inequalities and addressing inequity - our Equity and Equality Action Plan sets out how we will do this.

The HNY LMNS Equity and Equality Action Plan - 2022-27 setting out how the LMNS will work in partnership to ensure equity for women and babies and race equality for staff, can be accessed here. Linked to this, our overview narrative is here.

Equity and Equality 

Women from Black and minority ethnic groups experience additional risks compared to White women that, without the right interventions, can lead to poor outcomes.  

Black women are four times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy than White women.  Women with a Mixed Ethnicity are almost twice as likely to die as White women and Asian women are also almost twice as likely to die as White women. 

Source: Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care Lay Summary 2021, MBBRACE-UK.

The additional risks faced have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the urgent need to improve equity in maternity.  During the pandemic, the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS) study found that more than half of pregnant women admitted to hospital with COVID-19 infection in pregnancy were from Black or other ethnic minority groups.  Black women were also eight times more likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19 during pregnancy than White women, while Asian women were four time more likely. 

The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee published their report on Black maternal health in April 2023. Caroline Nokes, who chairs the committee, said births on the NHS "are among the safest in the world" but black women's raised risk was "shocking" and improvements in disparities between different groups were too slow.

We also know that women living in our most deprived areas are twice as likely to die than those who live in the most affluent areas. 

The Equity and Equality Guidance for Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems was published in September 2021. 

It set out our two national aims: 

- Equity* for mothers and babies from Black, Asian and Mixed Ethnic Groups and those living in the most deprived areas; and 

- Race equality for staff.

*Equity means that all mothers and babies will achieve health outcomes that are as good as the groups with the best health outcomes.

The guidance asked LMNSs across England to follows a two step process to:

1.Submit an equity and equality analysis (covering health outcomes, community assets and staff experience) and a coproduction plan. 

2.Co-produce an equity and equality action plan setting out how the LMNS will work in partnership to ensure equity for women and babies and race equality for staff by 30th September 2022, as per the five priority areas. 

• Priority 1: Restore NHS services inclusively
• Priority 2: Mitigate against digital exclusion
• Priority 3: Ensure datasets are complete and timely
• Priority 4: Accelerate preventative programmes that engage those at greatest risk of poor health outcomes
• Priority 5: Strengthen leadership and accountability.