The Health Secretary is being urged to meet maternity staff to understand why they are at their “wits’ end”, with many leaving the service.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has written to Steve Barclay to spell out the “multiple challenges” frontline staff are facing.

The call comes a day after a ballot for industrial action among midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs) in England fell just short of the legal turnout threshold.

RCM general secretary Gill Walton voiced frustration at the “lack of focus” by Mr Barclay and his predecessors to the “growing crisis” in the profession.

She wrote: “We are entirely focused on what it takes to deliver safe maternity care and we are committed to your manifesto promise to make the UK the best place in the world to give birth.

“We are saddened that none of your predecessors since Jeremy Hunt has found time to meet with us and discuss what it takes to improve maternity care. We wonder whether this indicates the regard in which the Government holds midwives and midwifery?”

In the ballot, more than nine out of 10 midwives and MSWs in England voted to take industrial action but the turnout was just below the 50% legal threshold.

Gill Walton added: “Midwives and MSWs are at their wits’ end, and many of them are already leaving the service. Since the last election midwife numbers have gone down by 600.

“Staff feel undervalued and taken for granted, and a pay award of just 4% for most midwives has done nothing to halt this. Getting this close to threshold will be deeply frustrating for many of our members, but it is absolutely not the end of our fight to get a decent deal for midwives and MSWs.

“That is why I am inviting Steve Barclay to join me in any maternity service in the country, wherever he chooses.

“He needs to hear direct from dedicated midwives and maternity support workers who are skipping breaks and working way beyond their hours, often without being paid, to provide the care that women and babies need.

“He needs to see beyond the statistics to meet the people the impact of a lack of any action by him and his predecessors really means.”

The legal threshold for industrial action was met among midwives in Wales.