Our maternity investigation team brings together individuals with professional investigation backgrounds in health and other relevant disciplines.
Senior team
Our maternity investigation team is led by Professor James Walker, Clinical Director and Sandy Lewis, Director of Maternity Investigations.
The senior team also includes four obstetricians who act as clinical advisors. We consult with additional specialist clinical advisors in neonatology, anaesthetics and midwifery.
Find out more about our senior team on the maternity investigation team page in the about us section.
Maternity investigators
Our maternity investigators have a wide range of professional backgrounds including health and other sectors. This helps to ensure we have a strong mix of people with clinical experience and knowledge, including in midwifery and nursing, with people who can bring fresh thinking and insight to challenge long-held assumptions about how maternity services should be delivered.
All our maternity investigators are specially trained for their work. On joining the team they complete an intensive three-week training programme. The training draws on the principles of our national investigations, with significant emphasis on maternity issues.
Our maternity investigators have the skills to:
- Conduct effective and efficient investigations, working with families and trusts to establish key facts.
- Be independent and unbiased. If they have any conflict of interest (having worked in the trust or knowing people involved) they do not carry out the investigation.
- Employ robust analytical methodology to understand the contributory factors of maternity incidents.
- Produce timely investigation reports with sound recommendations to improve the safety of maternity services within individual NHS trusts and across the maternity healthcare system.
Maternity investigators work in 14 regional teams covering the whole of England. A list of all of the NHS trusts where we carry out maternity investigations is available on the where we investigate page.
Subject matter advisors
Maternity investigators engage the expertise of subject matter advisors, when required, to provide evidence-based advice in their specialist area of interest. Specialist areas of interest include mental health, neonatology, intensive care, anaesthetics, neurology, maternal medicine and endocrinology.
We welcome expressions of interest from experienced clinicians who would like to become subject matter advisors on a consultancy basis. Find out more on the join our team page.