Pregnancy Screening Draft Standards Open for Consultation

We wanted to let you know that Healthcare Improvement Scotland have published the new Pregnancy Screening draft standards and these are now open for consultation. 

These standards are for pregnancy screening related to:

• Down’s syndrome
• Edwards’ syndrome
• Patau’s syndrome
• Mid-pregnancy ultrasound

The standards are a revision of the 2019 standards for Pregnancy screening previously referred to as Fetal anomaly screening. The standards will support the delivery of this aspect of the national pregnancy screening programme.

We, Down’s Syndrome Scotland, have been involved as a Stakeholder in the Pregnancy Screening Standards Development and Editorial Groups to ensure that they are inclusive and respectful of our community. We are pleased to share that in response to our request the word ‘Fetal’ will no longer be a term used within pregnancy screening when referring to a baby during pregnancy.  

You can read the standards on Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s website here.

You can give feedback on the draft standards by completing an online survey here.

The consultation on the draft standards closes at 5pm on 19th August 2024.

If you have issues completing the form, you can contact Healthcare Improvement Scotland at his.screeningstandards@nhs.scot.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland will collate comments received on the standards at the end of the consultation period and use these to inform the development of the final standards.The final Pregnancy Screening standards are due for publication in December 2024.

If you have any further questions or would like to speak to us about any of this you can email us at familysupportservice@dsscotland.org.uk or call us on 0300 030 2121.