Urgent call for action over after tragic death of Manchester United great Steve Bruce’s baby grandson

‘Without regulation this will happen again’

17:42, 23 Mar 2026Updated 19:58, 23 Mar 2026

‘Without regulation this will happen again'(Image: Getty)

A coroner has called for urgent action to be taken at a national level over the unregulated ‘maternity services’ industry and ‘maternity nurses’ with no qualifications after the death of Manchester United great Steve Bruce’s grandson.

Madison Bruce-Smith died after he was put to sleep in his cot on his tummy at night against national guidance on the advice of a woman who claimed to be a ‘maternity nurse’, but had no formal medical qualifications, an inquest heard on Monday. He was tragically just four months-old.

Madison was discovered ‘unresponsive’ at 7am at the family home in Bowdon, Trafford, on October 18, 2024, by his father, former Leeds United striker Matt Smith, who is married to Bruce’s daughter Amy.

The couple, giving evidence at an inquest at South Manchester Coroners’ Court in Stockport, said they believed Eva Clements ‘was trained, competent and operating within a regulated system’ and Ruth Asare’s maternity services company, which Ms Clements completed a training course with, was ‘structured, vetted and supervised’.

“None of those assumptions were true,” they said in a statement. Mr Smith, meanwhile, said in evidence he believed his son’s death was caused by ‘neglect’.

Police, in evidence, said Ms Clements was arrested on suspicion of neglect at the time, but the ‘criminal threshold’ was found not to have been met after liaison with the Crown Prosecution Service. A senior detective said it wasn’t illegal to put a child on their front and it could not be determined Ms Clements ‘wilfully set out to deliberately harm’ Madison.

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The court heard UK medical guidelines which have now been in place for more than 25 years say babies should sleep on their backs.

Ms Clements, the inquest heard, had no official nursing or midwifery training – and told Madison’s parents she put all her four children to sleep on their fronts.

The court heard the couple ‘raised concern’ with her about Madison being on his front, but she told them ‘best leave him’.

Ms Clements said she took a day-long course with a company called Ruthie Maternity Services, which is run by Ruth Asare. Giving evidence, Ms Asare called herself a ‘post-natal carer’, but police said the website referred to ‘maternity nurses’.

Ms Asare said she had no formal medical training or qualifications, but those who took the courses were put on a platform managed by the company. Jobs looking after babies for families would come later from recommendations.

Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Dixon said both Ms Asare and Ms Clements used the term ‘maternity nurse’. He said ‘that’s the impression they were giving’ and said it could have been to improve their ‘credibility’.

Ms Clements, he said, was ‘purporting to be a professional’ and that it was a ‘massive change’ in Madison’s normal routine at night.

The inquest heard the couple wanted assistance and support to improve Madison’s day-to-day sleeping pattern. There was a ‘verbal agreement’ that Ms Clements would look after Madison through the night.

She had only met them that day and giving evidence, told the court she had put Madison down for a nap on his front earlier that afternoon.

The court heard Mrs Smith sent her a text message at just before 11pm asking her to wake her up if there was any problem. She wrote in the text ‘I hope he is okay on his front. I worry about him being on his front’, the inquest heard. Ms Clements, who was upstairs in the home, messaged back around an hour and a half later saying ‘okay, thank you’.

The inquest heard she had sent a message to another person that afternoon saying ‘this baby can cry’, together with a ‘crying emoji’.

Police were also able to find extensive evidence of her using apps and TikTok on her phone during the night.

The court heard she had a baby monitor and observed Madison on it when he woke up during the night, but didn’t go into his room.

Senior coroner Alison Mutch called the use of the term maternity nurse ‘incredibly misleading’.

Ms Asare, in evidence, said leaving a baby unsupervised on their tummy at night was ‘unprofessional’. She said she wasn’t aware Ms Clements had taken a job with the family.

But in her evidence, Ms Clements, who said she loved babies, said Ms Asare had previously told her that ‘babies sleep better on their tummies’ and that it ‘was okay’. She claimed she told Madison’s parents of her plan to put him down on his tummy, and they agreed to it.

Ms Mutch told her that the court had ‘established that what you were doing was contrary to that guidance’.

The court heard Ms Clements was charging between £14 and £16 an hour and Ms Asare would take £30 for every 24 hours.

Dr Joanna Garstang, a consultant paediatrician and expert witness, said Ms Asare and Ms Clements had no professional training and were not following NHS guidance. She agreed the course Ms Asare was offering was ‘distinctly lacking’ and made no mention of safe sleeping.

Dr Garstang said Ms Clements was ‘trying to sleep train’ a young baby with no understanding of safe sleeping and criticised a decision she made to stop giving Madison a bottle at midnight. She referenced Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The inquest heard the cause of Madison’s death was given as ‘unascertained’.

In a statement, Mr and Mrs Smith said Ms Clements told them Madison was a ‘big boy’ who was having too much milk. They said she told them he didn’t need a midnight feed and should sleep on his front.

The couple said they became aware of Ms Asare’s company and believed she headed a team of maternity nurses who offered sleep support services. They said ‘at no point’ did she say they had no formal training or qualifications and that they later learned it offered ‘minimal informal instruction with no regulation’.

Mr and Mrs Smith described Madison as a ‘precious, perfect boy’, adding: “Losing Madison has been utterly excruciating. It has totally shattered our entire family. We will never forgive ourselves for agreeing to tummy sleeping. We relied and trusted on Eva Clements’ experience. We trusted her because she was recommended to us.”

They said they believed Madison died in a ‘regulatory vacuum’ and added: “The sleep nanny and maternity practitioner industry is entirely unregulated. Anyone can call themselves a sleep nurse or a maternity nanny without any requirement for qualification, accredited training, safeguarding checks or professional oversight. There is no regulatory framework, no compulsary standard, and no mechanism to ensure competence or prevent unsafe individuals from working with newborn babies. Parents are easily misled by language that implies professionalism.

“We believed Ruth Asare’s service was structured, vetted and supervised. We believed Eva Clements was trained, competent and operating within a regulated system. None of those assumptions were true.

Giving evidence, Madison’s mum Mrs Smith said Ms Clements told her that she was a nurse before becoming a maternity nurse, saying she believed she worked in a hospital. She said: “There was no training whatsoever and she was not a nurse. It was a dreadful shock. I never thought for a second she wouldn’t go in to check on him.”

Mrs Smith said it wasn’t a ‘regulated industry’. “Without regulation this will happen again,” she added in the statement. “Other parents, just as we did, will place trust in individuals who should never be responsible for the care of infants.”

Coroner Ms Mutch said she would be issuing a prevention of future deaths report to the health secretary calling for the regulation of maternity nurses and maternity services companies.

She recorded a narrative verdict, noting he was placed in a ‘prone and unsafe’ sleeping position.

Ms Mutch said: “The demand for these services from parents hoping to have some support is clearly there, but in effect, anyone who is employing them is employing somebody who may have little experience or qualifications.

“The unregulated advice given by maternity nurses and maternity services puts children at risk.”