Written question asked by Chuka Umunna (Labour) on Wednesday, 11 January 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 16 January 2012. It was answered by Anne Milton (Conservative) on Tuesday, 17 January 2012 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Baby Care Units: Standards

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment his Department has made of the relationship between levels of neonatal nursing staff and child mortality.

Answer: No assessment has been made centrally. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Department have published two evidence-based documents, the ““Quality Standard for Specialist Neonatal Care”” and the ““Toolkit for High Quality Neonatal Services””, to assist NHS commissioners and providers in the provision of high quality care for babies and their families, including neonatal workforce standards. These documents have already been placed in the Library and are available at:Quality Standard for Specialist Neonatal Care is available at:"www.nice.org.uk/media/17A/A8/SpecialistNeonatalQualityStandardRevisedOct10.pdf"Toolkit for High Quality Neonatal Services is available at:"www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/@ps/@sta/@perf/documents/digitalasset/dh_108435.pdf"

Secondary information