Freedom of Information Request: Stakeholder Consultation on Home Birth Suspension

Why we are asking for this information

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has referred to consultation and engagement with a wide range of organisations and internal committees in relation to the suspension of the home birth service.

This FOI request asks for evidence of that consultation.

We want to understand whether stakeholders were meaningfully asked for advice, concerns, alternatives, and scrutiny before decisions were made — or whether they were simply informed after the direction of travel had already been decided.

This matters because major changes to maternity services should be transparent, properly evidenced, and shaped by genuine engagement with women, families, staff, safety bodies, and service-user representatives.

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Dear Freedom of Information Team,

Please treat this as a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I am requesting information relating to stakeholder consultation, advice, scrutiny, or feedback considered by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in relation to the suspension of the Gloucestershire NHS home birth service from November 2025.

Please provide information from 1 September 2025 to the date of this request.

Please provide a schedule or list of any recorded consultation, advice, scrutiny, or feedback involving the following bodies, groups, roles, or committees:

1. Royal College of Midwives

2. Care Quality Commission

3. Regional Chief Midwife

4. NHS England regional maternity team

5. Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board

6. Gloucestershire LMNS / LMS

7. Gloucestershire MNVP and/or South West MNVP / service user leadership representatives

8. Perinatal Oversight and Assurance Group

9. Perinatal Delivery Group

10. Board Level Maternity Safety Champions

11. Women and Children’s Divisional Board

12. Quality and Performance Committee

13. Legal advisers, including internal legal advisers, external solicitors, counsel, or other legal consultants.

For each entry, please provide:

1. Date of the meeting, discussion, briefing, correspondence, or advice

2. Body/group/role involved

3. Names or roles of Trust attendees/contributors

4. Brief description of the subject matter discussed

5. Whether concerns were raised

6. Whether alternatives to full suspension were proposed or discussed

7. Whether any written record exists, such as minutes, notes, emails, briefing papers, reports, action logs, advice, or written submissions.

Please also provide copies of any final minutes, formal action logs, final briefing papers, final reports, or final written advice/submissions directly relating to stakeholder consultation or scrutiny of the home birth suspension.

To keep this request within the FOI cost limit, I am not asking at this stage for all drafts, Teams messages, or every email chain. If a large volume of emails is held, please provide the schedule/list requested above and the key final documents only.

For legal advice, I understand that the Trust may seek to rely on legal professional privilege in relation to the substance of advice. However, please still provide non-privileged information including:

1. Dates on which legal advice was sought or received

2. The broad subject matter or scope of the advice

3. Whether the advice related to suspension, consultation, equality duties, human rights, risk, decision-making process, service restoration, or alternatives to suspension

4. Whether the advice came from internal legal advisers, external solicitors, counsel, or another legal consultant.

If any of the listed bodies, groups, roles, or committees were not consulted, asked for advice, or involved in scrutiny before or after the decision, please confirm this clearly.

If the Trust considers that any part of this request may exceed the appropriate cost limit, please provide advice and assistance under section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act to help narrow the request, rather than refusing it outright.

Yours faithfully,

Emma