Report resource
This report presents findings from an independent quantitative evaluation of Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS), commissioned by NHS Resolution and conducted by The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute (THIS Institute) and the Primary Care Unit (PCU) at the University of Cambridge, addressing the following questions:
- To what extent does the MIS safety actions influence policy and behaviour in practice in the manner anticipated?
- How does each safety action impact on finance, claims, safety, and clinical outcomes?
The evaluation consisted of two stages: (a) stage one evaluated NHS Resolution’s process of MIS including the effectiveness of how the Scheme operates and (b) stage two examined the impact of MIS, analysing whether compliance with individual safety actions is associated with differences in claims, outcomes and safety indicators. This report presents results from stage two of the evaluation using data collected through the MIS, examining patterns of safety action compliance across trusts and over time.
This report is structured as follows. Section 2 examines patterns of safety action compliance across NHS trusts, exploring variation by year, region, and trust size, and using mixed-effects logistic regression models to identify which safety actions most strongly predict full compliance, how compliance persists across years, and the likelihood of recovery following non-compliance. Section 3 evaluates the impact of Safety Action 5 on midwifery workforce indicators, analysing whether the introduction of the MIS and compliance with Safety Action 5 were associated with changes in workforce stability. Section 4 assesses the relationship between Safety Action 8 and brachial plexus injury claims, describing national patterns and exploring how observed trends align with MIS implementation. Section 5 synthesises the findings and discusses their implications for the continued development of the MIS.
Download THIS Institute Maternity Incentive Scheme Quantitative Report
