Improving care for mothers and babies: a network approach
Ann Remmers, Maternal and Neonatal Clinical Lead, West of England AHSN, explains the creation of the Maternity Clinical Networks in England and the intention to support improving care for women and babies. She describes the different work streams for the Maternity Transformation programme, the Local Maternity Systems and the involvement of women and families in the programme. She also discusses the aims of the national maternity safety strategy and the national collaborative programmes. Ann presents how the clinical network is working to encourage collaboration for improvement and supporting developments and encourages us to develop our own networks.
Ann Remmers, Maternal and Neonatal Clinical Lead, West of England AHSN
Inspiring leadership resources
Healthcare Inspectorate Wales 2019 National review of maternity services
https://hiw.org.uk/national-review-maternity-services
Kirkup , B. 2015 The Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation The Stationery Office.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/408480/47487_MBI_Accessible_v0.1.pdf
McCalmont C, Bailey E. 2016 Enhancing and developing leadership in midwifery. The Practising Midwife 19(2):8-10.
National Maternity Review 2016 Better Births: Improving outcomes of maternity services in England – A Five Year Forward View for maternity care
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/national-maternity-review-report.pdf
NHS England Maternity transformation Programme resources
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mat-transformation/
NHS England and Health Education England 2018 Leadership Development
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/leadership-development.pdf
NHS Long term plan
https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/
NHS Lothian Best Start in Lothian resources
https://services.nhslothian.scot/Maternity/Best-Start-in-Lothian/Pages/default.aspx
RCM undated The RCM standards for midwifery services in the UK
https://www.rcm.org.uk/media/2283/rcm-standards-midwifery-services-uk.pdf
RCM Leadership resources
https://www.rcm.org.uk/promoting/learning-careers/leadership/
The Scottish Government 2017 The Best Start: A Five-Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland
https://www.gov.scot/publications/best-start-five-year-forward-plan-maternity-neonatal-care-scotland/pages/0/
The Scottish Government Maternal and Child Health resources
https://www.gov.scot/policies/maternal-and-child-health/
Demonstrating your learning – Inspiring Leadership
We hope you have enjoyed watching the video box set. The aim of producing this package is to enable you to learn about an aspect of midwifery practice which you will be able to use to improve the care of women, babies and their families. As a professional there will be times where you will need to demonstrate you have learned and, don’t forget that, writing down your learning will help this to be embedded in your memory! To this end we have devised some questions to help you progress. You may, of course, devise your own questions as well. These may then be used as part of your professional validation in the future.
Learning Outcomes
After watching these talks you will have:
- Knowledge of the place of maternity services in current structures and the future services
- Examined experiences of leadership and management roles and the impact
- Explored appropriate practical leadership and management
Reflective questions
- Explore the learning outcomes (LO) of this set of videos. What are the key aspects of the LO that are relevant to you and your scope and code of practice?
- Summarise what you have learned from these videos
- What are the feelings that have been raised as you watched them? Why you have felt this?
- What are the key pieces of research or evidence that you have learned about?
- How will this learning now affect your practice; the women, babies and families in your care?
- Are there ways you plan to make changes or take forward with others?
- What else would you like to find out about to help your learning on this topic?
Ann Remmers, Maternal and Neonatal Clinical Lead, West of England AHSN
Ann is a midwife and Clinical Lead for maternal and neonatal care at the West of England Academic Health Science Network and leads on the national Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme within the Patient Safety Collaborative. Ann is also midwifery lead for the PERIPrem care bundle which aims to optimise care for the pre term infant and is currently being implemented across the South West.
From 2015 to 2018 Ann was Patient Safety Programme Director during which time the team won national awards for adoption and spread of the National Early Warning Score, the ED Safety checklist and Prevention of Cerebral Palsy in Pre Term infants (PReCePT).
Until June 2020 Ann was Clinical Director for the Maternity and Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Clinical Network in the South West of England; working with and supporting maternity and neonatal services and Local Maternity Systems to meet the recommendations of Better Births and the national Maternity Transformation programme.
Ann previously worked for a number of years in Bristol as a Clinical Director and Director of Midwifery in NHS Trusts, providing care to mothers and babies.
