The first family meeting for the independent review into maternity and neonatal care at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust took place on Saturday 5th September. The review was chaired by Donna Ockenden, one of the country’s leading maternity safety investigators. CL Medilaw client Chloe Vowels Lovett spoke to Sky News about the meeting, while our clients Robyn and Jonny Davis were also in attendance.
One review among many, not one national investigation
The Sussex review is separate from the Independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation led by Baroness Amos, which examined services across 12 NHS trusts and concluded with its final report on 30th June 2026. Donna Ockenden is leading individual reviews into specific trusts where families have raised serious and repeated concerns.
She previously led the landmark review into Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and is currently chairing the review into Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. The Sussex review is the newest addition, and shares the same driving force as the others: years of campaigning by bereaved and harmed families.
Families in Leeds face similar fight
Maternity care in Leeds has followed a similar path to other affected trusts. After years of concerns, an “inadequate” rating from the Care Quality Commission, and a BBC investigation into avoidable baby and maternal deaths, the government confirmed an independent review into Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in October 2025.
Donna Ockenden was confirmed as chair in March 2026, following sustained campaigning by bereaved families. CL Medilaw has followed the review from its earliest stages, including partner Fran Manley’s reflections on how families shaped it.
The personal tragedies driving the push for change
Robyn and Jonny Davis began pushing for a review in Sussex long before one was ever on the table. That advocacy grew out of tragedy. Robyn and Jonny’s son Orlando died at just 14-days-old following failures in care by midwives at home and at Worthing Hospital after Robyn was transferred there in labour. The inquest into Orlando’s death, held in Chichester, found that a catalogue of failures amounting to neglect had contributed. It was that finding, and the family’s determination in the months afterwards, that led to their first meeting with Donna Ockenden.
Other families joined them, including our client Chloe Vowels Lovett and her husband Toby, who lost their daughter Esme to care failings at the same hospital. Together, they took their case directly to the Department of Health and Social Care. They met several times with Wes Streeting, the then Health Secretary, and consistently called for Donna Ockenden to lead the review.
Their willingness to speak out has helped keep pressure on the system and has given other affected families the confidence to come forward and discuss their own experiences, now resulting in a full independent review of the Trust’s maternity services.
All affected families deserve to be heard
The review will look at more than 1000 cases dating from 2018, with the potential for more to be added as families come forward. It will look at not only those cases involving baby loss, but also where failings have caused injuries to babies that cause lifelong disability, and harm to mothers during pregnancy, birth and recovery. Families who have lived through any of these outcomes deserve to have their experiences heard and receive accountability for where things have gone wrong.
"Our son was never born to be a statistic"
Orlando’s mother, Robyn Davis, said:
“Ourselves and the other families within our Truth For Our Babies group (harmed families under the care of University Hospitals of Sussex NHS Foundation Trust) have spent years pushing and campaigning to have the trusted and well respected Donna Ockenden to lead an extensive review into our maternity care and our babies deaths. We requested this review to accurately reflect the scale of harm experienced due to the severe failings in our care and it will hopefully establish what went so wrong. For us personally, we hope this review will deliver meaningful change and accountability that will lead to consequences and justice for the loss of our baby boy’s life.
We worked so hard to obtain this review and it is a fight that should never have happened, we are nevertheless pleased this is now taking place. The review was driven by our group’s extensive organising, research, determination, and advocacy despite ongoing grief, trauma and struggles that extend from our baby’s death.
We are confident that the scope of the review alongside her large competent multi-professional team will ensure that harmed families’ voices are heard and, importantly, acted upon. It gives us hope that us and other families will finally receive honest and thorough answers which we have been seeking. We need to know what failed and why so many other families have been harmed.
We will never process, understand or forgive what happened to us and our son. As a consequence of the negligent care we received in labour I now have life-long injuries, mentally and physically, and have to live everyday without my longed for son. We are serving a life sentence of trauma and a broken heart at the expense of neglectful practice of others.
Our son was never born to be a learning curve or a statistic, he was born to be loved, happy, healthy and to be present with his family. We deserve truthful answers and accountability for the life he was robbed of, by both the individuals caring for him and the Trust who failed us.“
"Every family must be listened to, every case examined thoroughly"
CL Medilaw’s Laura Cook said:
“All of the Sussex families, including Robyn and Jonny, Chloe and Toby, have shown immense courage, dignity, and determination in speaking out during what will undoubtedly have been the most painful period of their lives. Their bravery has been instrumental in ensuring that maternity care concerns in Sussex are subject to the independent scrutiny they deserve.
As a birth injury specialist, I have seen the devastating and lifelong impact that avoidable harm, loss and injury can have on families when maternity care falls below an acceptable standard. I welcome the appointment of Donna Ockenden and her team to this review, and it is now vital that every family is listened to, every case is examined thoroughly, and the lessons identified are translated into meaningful, lasting change.
This review must not only provide answers for the families affected, but also help to drive improvements in maternity care so that mothers, babies and families are better protected in the future.”
Support for affected families
Maternity safety reviews are now underway or completed at Trusts across the country, not just in Sussex. Families anywhere in England who have concerns about the care they or their baby received during pregnancy, birth or the postnatal period can get in touch with CL Medilaw’s specialist birth injury team for guidance on what support and next steps are available to them.
