Steve Bruce’s son-in-law Matt Smith, the Birmingham-born former footballer, found his four-month-old Madison Bruce-Smith ‘unresponsive’ at 7am on 18 October 2024
21:19, 23 Mar 2026Updated 21:23, 23 Mar 2026
Steve Bruce had been Blackpool head coach for barely a month before his grandson Madison Bruce-Smith died(Image: PA)
Steve Bruce’s four-month-old grandson’s death has caused a coroner to call for national regulation of the ‘maternity services’ industry and unqualified ‘maternity nurses’, an inquest on Monday heard.
Madison Bruce-Smith died after being put down, as the coroner noted, in a ‘prone and unsafe’ sleeping position, as advised by a ‘maternity nurse’ without any formal medical qualifications. The court heard that medical guidelines say infants should sleep on their backs.
Coroner 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.”
The Manchester Evening News reports that she recorded a narrative verdict that notes Madison’s sleeping position as ‘prone and unsafe’.
Ms Mutch is also to issue a report to prevent future deaths to the secretary of state for health and social care, currently Wes Streeting, calling for maternity nurses and maternity services companies to be regulated.
Matt Smith, husband to Bruce’s daughter Amy, found their son ‘unresponsive’ in their Trafford home at 7am on October 18, 2024. Smith was born in Birmingham and played non-league football locally for Redditch United and Solihull Moors before turning professional with Oldham Athletic.
He went on to play approaching 300 games in the Championship for Fulham, Leeds United, Millwall and Queens Park Rangers before retiring two months before his daughter’s death.
Smith’s father, Ian, played for Birmingham City while working as a qualified doctor at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and went on to represent Kidderminster Harriers and Bromsgrove Rovers.
His father-in-law, Bruce, also played for Blues and later led them to Premier League promotion twice before going on to coach Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion.
Smith retired from playing in August 2024, two months before his daughter died. The couple described Madison as a ‘precious, perfect boy’. They added: “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.”
In a statement, the Smiths said: “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 compulsory 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.”
They added: “Without regulation, this will happen again. Other parents, just as we did, will place trust in individuals who should never be responsible for the care of infants.”