Yvette Cooper is expected to announce a national maternity plan, the Healthy Babies programme, after discovering that England has lacked a nationwide maternity services plan since 2012. The proposal follows concerns that NHS services do not consistently track deaths of babies and children or use maternity outcomes to assess hospital performance; the article says the Lucy Letby case has brought these gaps into sharper focus.

The programme would extend Sure Start-style family support to every local authority, bringing help with infant feeding, parental mental health and bonding together with health visiting and midwifery. Cooper is expected to say that Sure Start health services will return to family centres, with more than 1,000 hubs planned across England by 2028. The article also reports that an inquiry into failings at the Countess of Chester Hospital found senior executives put the hospital’s reputation ahead of infant safety.