Nottingham maternity scandal report finds over 500 avoidable harms
Two fathers’ WhatsApp messages helped build the case that exposed more than 500 avoidable harms in Nottingham maternity care.
A final review of maternity care at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust found 444 maternity cases and 76 neonatal cases with potentially avoidable outcomes.
NHS England set up the review in May 2022 after families raised serious concerns about the quality and safety of maternity services and after some complaints reached the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The final report, published on 24 June 2026, examined more than 2,500 family cases, drew on more than 160 reviewers, held individual meetings with over 500 families and spoke with more than 830 current and former NUH staff. The report found gaps in knowledge because some senior leaders declined to engage.
In 2020, a decade of poor care at the trust came into public view, including 46 cases of babies left with permanent brain damage, 19 stillbirths and 15 deaths. Families said key notes were missing or inaccurate, serious incidents were not properly investigated and reports were watered down. Their persistence forced the issue back onto the agenda after the trust was already struggling to fill 70 full-time midwife vacancies.
Harriet Hawkins died during childbirth in 2016 because of failings at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. In December 2021, Jack Hawkins and Sarah Hawkins won a clinical negligence claim against the trust, which paid them £2.8 million. Their fight for answers was joined by other parents who shared records, compared experiences and pressed for a national inquiry after years of being met with delay and denial.
Private messages between grieving fathers became part of that evidence trail. One WhatsApp message from Gary Andrews to Dr Jack Hawkins asked, “Do you want to speak?” That exchange led parents to gather documents, identify contradictions and keep pressure on the system when hospitals and regulators did not.
Nottinghamshire Police launched Operation Perth in 2022 and later opened a corporate manslaughter investigation. In June 2026, police said two men had been arrested in connection with mortuary operating practices at the trust. Sir Jim Mackey said he would summon every hospital chief executive in England after the report, while Wes Streeting announced proposed powers that could send managers who refuse to cooperate with maternity investigations to prison for up to two years.
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