Yvette Cooper has accused the NHS of treating women and babies as ‘second-class patients’ as she vowed to introduce new maternity standards.

The health secretary said the health service was supposed to care for people ‘from the cradle to the grave’ but in recent years ‘too often the cradle has been forgotten’.

Speaking at Labour Party conference, Ms Cooper said that improving maternity care and support for new parents and babies will be among her top priorities.

She pledged to appoint an independent maternity commissioner and to restore Sure Start-style health services to up to 1,000 family hubs over the next two years.

Parents will be offered greater support with infant feeding, mental health and bonding with their babies, alongside access to midwives and health visitors in a bid to give children a better start in life.

Ms Cooper told delegates in Liverpool: ‘I am sick and tired of women and babies being treated as second-class patients and I will not stop until every mother is given the care she deserves.’

Her intervention follows a series of reviews into maternity scandals at hospitals where women and babies have needlessly died or been seriously injured due to poor care.

She continued: ’When Nye Bevan explained the National Health Service 80 years ago, he said it would support families from the cradle to the grave, but I believe in recent years, too often the cradle has been forgotten.

Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper delivers her keynote speech to Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

‘There is some amazing care in maternity services across the country, from dedicated midwives, consultants and staff – but there have also been too many heartbreaking stories where things have gone wrong but the rest of the NHS didn’t take it seriously or didn’t notice.

‘Later this year, with our maternity task force, we will bring back new national maternity standards, including baby loss and post-pregnancy care, and we will appoint an independent maternity and neonatal commissioner.’

The speech also set out a wider focus on the earliest years of children’s lives.

Sure Start, launched under the last Labour government in 1998, brought together early education, childcare, health and family support for children under five, initially in disadvantaged areas before developing into a wider network.

Its reach was substantially reduced after 2010 following funding cuts.

Ms Cooper said family hubs were now being rebuilt but health support was still missing in many parts of the country.

‘Compared to last time round, in half of our councils, the hubs are missing important Sure Start health services, so they don’t have the healthy baby support, the mental health care for mums and dads, the feeding and bonding support for babies.

‘That changes now. I can announce we will bring back those Sure Start health services into every family centre, reaching up to 1,000 family hubs over the next two years.’

Ms Cooper also used today’s keynote speech to put violence against women and girls at the centre of her health agenda, announcing almost £50 million for specialist referral services through GPs for women and men who are victims of domestic abuse.

She told conference: ‘For the first time, we will take a public health approach to violence against women and girls, working with survivors, charities, local government, and the NHS to set out how to treat this like the disease that it is.

‘All of us have a responsibility to ensure everyone can live in freedom from fear.’

The announcement followed remarks she made at an earlier fringe event where she warned domestic abuse and sexual violence against women and girls had soared to ‘epidemic’ levels.

It comes just a day before the government is set to free hundreds of prisoners under its controversial early release scheme, including some sex offenders and domestic abusers.

Official figures indicate that sexual and domestic violence affect millions of people in Britain, with women disproportionately affected.

The government published its Freedom from Violence and Abuse strategy last December, with the aim of halving violence against women and girls within a decade.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates that 739,000 women experienced sexual assault in a year and 2.2 million experienced domestic abuse.

However, sexual violence remains hugely under-reported, with only a tiny proportion of victims of rape or assault by penetration telling police.

Crimes are most likely to be perpetrated by their partners, former partners and other known people.

Elsewhere in the speech, Ms Cooper announced plans for the first national collective pension scheme for care workers, alongside a social care workforce plan, career pathways and thousands more academy places to help young jobseekers enter the sector.

She also said the wider NHS faced pressure from an ageing population, childhood obesity, mental health crises and extreme heat, arguing that more care would need to be delivered in communities before patients reached hospital.