England is a safe place to give birth, and every year thousands of babies are safely delivered to delighted parents by experienced and dedicated NHS staff. This is the outcome that all families expect and the vast majority of families experience. However, tragedies can sometimes occur, and babies can suffer serious harm during delivery. Thankfully these incidents are rare, but it is clear that there is still more that the UK Department of Health can do to achieve its vision to make NHS maternity services among the safest in the world.
The rapid resolution and redress scheme (RRR) aims to introduce a system of consistent and independent investigations for all instances where there may be severe avoidable birth injury, along with access to ongoing support and compensation for eligible babies through an administrative scheme.
The main aims are:
- reducing the number of severe avoidable birth injuries by encouraging a learning culture
- improving the experience of families and clinicians when harm has occurred
- making more effective use of NHS resources
This consultation – opened since 2 March 2017 and closing at
11:45pm on 26 May 2017 – seeks views about the proposed scheme, including:
- how the scheme is administered
- the eligibility threshold for compensation
- how learning would best be shared and acted on to reduce future harm
This consultation is accompanied by a consultation-stage impact assessment and 2 independent research reports that were commissioned by the department to inform the early stages of policy development in preparing for the consultation.
2017 Documents
- A rapid resolution and redress scheme for severe avoidable birth injury: a consultation, PDF, 871KB, 42 pages.
- A rapid resolution and redress scheme for severe avoidable birth injury: impact assessment, PDF, 3.34MB, 81 pages.
- DH birth injury compensation policy research
PDF, 1.61MB, 74 pages. - No-Fault Compensation Schemes: review, PDF, 1.68MB, 87 pages.