FOI release

Maternity care governance

Some or all of the information requested was not provided because we determined that the cost to do so would exceed the appropriate limit.

Case reference FOI2026/03177

Received 15 July 2026

Published 5 October 2026

Request

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information for each calendar year 2021-2025 inclusive, and year-to-date for 2026 if readily available.

Maternity care pathways
1.The number of births that occurred in: Oxford Spires Midwifery-led Unit John Radcliffe Delivery Suite.

2.The number of women who were booked or planned to give birth in the Oxford Spires Midwifery-led Unit. Of those booked for the Spires,
a.the number who: gave birth in the Spires;
b. transferred to the Delivery Suite before established labour;
c. transferred during labour;
d. transferred following birth.

3.The number of occasions on which the Spires was temporarily closed to admissions or unavailable owing to staffing or capacity constraints.
If possible, please provide raw data broken down by day to allow comparison across the period of time.
If the information is only held in aggregated wwwkly or monthly rather than annual format, aggregated data would be acceptable. If any element would exceed the appropriate cost limit, please provide the remaining information and advise which element would exceed the limit.

Maternity care procedure
4. The current written eligibility criteria for planned birth in the Oxford Spires Midwifery-led Unit.
5. The current clinical guideline(s), SOP(s), pathway(s) or policy documents governing: eligibility for the Spires; admission to the Spires; transfer from the Spires to the Delivery Suite.
6.Copies of any superseded versions of these documents that were in force at any point from 1 January 2021 onwards. A document schedule identifying document title; version number; approval date; implementation date. I am requesting existing documents only and am not requesting explanation or analysis.

Maternity care governance

7. Please provide copies of papers produced between 1 January 2024 and the date of this request which were prepared for Trust committees or senior management meetings, and which principally concern any of the following:
Utilisation of the Oxford Spires Midwifery-led Unit;
Capacity or occupancy of the Spires
Staffing of the Spires
Transfer rates between the Spires and the Delivery Suite;
Proposals or reviews concerning the role or future operation of the Spires.

Response

Attached Excel spread sheet has number of births conducted at The Spires.

We do not have a booking system for the Spires Midwifery-Led Unit for planned place of birth. Women attend in labour and if suitable, or a plan is in place, for a birth on The Spires, they are admitted to The Spires. As a result, in the attached Excel spreadsheet, you will find "admission to Spires" and "Total transferred" . Reasons for transfer are not categorised by stage of labour, rather cause or event that triggered indication for transfer, obtaining this information would require manual review of individual care records which would exceed the maximum time permitted for FOI responses.

We are unable to provide the information requested within the statutory time limit for responding to an FOI request in accordance with Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The data would have to be collated by hand.

For 2025 and 2026 with location of The Spires on to level 7 there has been no closures.

Please see attached the current (V5) and historical versions of the "MLU and Homebirth Booking and Referral Guideline" PDFs.

Maternity care governance

7. Please provide copies of papers produced between 1 January 2024 and the date of this request which were prepared for Trust committees or senior management meetings, and which principally concern any of the following:
Utilisation of the Oxford Spires Midwifery-led Unit;
Capacity or occupancy of the Spires
Staffing of the Spires
Transfer rates between the Spires and the Delivery Suite;
Proposals or reviews concerning the role or future operation of the Spires.

As per Governance processes, these papers would be received at Trust Board, these are available on the Trust Board website.

Documents

This is Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.

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