NHS England region
Maternity services in South East
17 NHS trusts in South East with their hospital maternity units: CQC’s rating, what women said about the staff who cared for them in labour, and how many gave birth in July 2026. England’s CQC score was 8.4 out of 10.
The CQC score comes from women who gave birth in February 2025: kindness, respect, being listened to, help when you needed it, staff working well together and not being left alone when worried.
NHS trusts in South East
Highest CQC score first for “Staff caring for you in labour”, from the Maternity Survey. Neighbouring trusts are often only a fraction of a point apart, well within the survey’s margin: CQC’s own comparison, beside each one, is what tells trusts apart. We do not grade maternity care: we show CQC’s ratings, CQC’s survey scores and NHS England’s figures for births. Trusts care for different women: a specialist unit takes the most complex pregnancies from a wide area, so a figure on its own says little about the care.
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.8/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 150 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: better than expected.
- Women who gave birth
- 265
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Outstanding (Royal Surrey County Hospital).
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.7/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 104 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 205
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Conquest Hospital); Requires improvement (Eastbourne District General Hospital).
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.7/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 138 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 365
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (New Forest Birth Centre); Good (Princess Anne Hospital).
Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.6/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 106 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 320
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Darent Valley Hospital).
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.6/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 132 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 460
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Insufficient evidence to rate (Kent & Canterbury Hospital); Good (Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital); Good (William Harvey Hospital).
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.6/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 274 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 700
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Frimley Park Hospital); Good (Wexham Park Hospital).
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.6/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 158 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 440
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (Crowborough Birthing Centre); Requires improvement (Maidstone Hospital); Good (The Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury).
Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.6/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 147 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 440
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (Gosport War Memorial Hospital); Requires improvement (Queen Alexandra Hospital); Requires improvement (St Mary's Hospital).
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.6/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 115 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 300
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (East Surrey Hospital).
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.6/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 261 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 720
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (Princess Royal Hospital); Requires improvement (Royal Sussex County Hospital); Requires improvement (St Richard's Hospital); Requires improvement (Worthing Hospital).
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.5/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 153 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 370
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Andover War Memorial Hospital); Good (Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital); Good (Royal Hampshire County Hospital).
Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.4/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 132 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 220
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (St Peter's Hospital).
Medway NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.3/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 108 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 345
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Medway Maritime Hospital).
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.4/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 256 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 485
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Horton General Hospital); Good (John Radcliffe Hospital).
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.1/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 131 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 370
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Royal Berkshire Hospital).
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.0/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 154 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 315
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (Stoke Mandeville Hospital); Good (Wycombe Hospital).
Isle of Wight NHS Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 7.8/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 59 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 80
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (St Mary's Hospital).
Where the figures come from
CQC’s inspections and survey, and the births each trust reported to NHS England.
Sources: CQC maternity ratings as at 1 October 2026; CQC Maternity Survey 2025 (women who gave birth in February 2025, published 10 December 2025); NHS England, Maternity Services Monthly Statistics, July 2026 (published 22 October 2026). Open Government Licence. CQC is not responsible for how we present its data.
Data updated
The month each source’s data runs to, and when its publisher released it.
- CQC Maternity Survey: (published 10 December 2025)
- Maternity Services Monthly Statistics: (published 22 October 2026)
- CQC ratings: (published 2 October 2026)
Sources
- Contains information from the Care Quality Commission, licensed under the Open Government Licence. CQC must be acknowledged as the source of the data; CQC is not responsible for our analysis.
- Contains information from NHS England, licenced under the current version of the Open Government Licence