Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) – Main Meeting
Tuesday 25th June 2019, 10.00am – 12.00pm at CNet
Present: Aliya Fazil (Co-Chair), Laila Ahmed (CNet), Yazmin Shah (CNet), Trudie Osman (NSPCC), Rachael Loftus (AFC-Baby Steps), Rashmi Sudhir (CCG), Laura Hughes (NHS), Rachael Dennis (NCT), Tilly Rathwell (Project 6), Gemma Smith (Family Action), Carol Dyson (Bradford Royal Infirmary), Jenni Brown (Clover Team), Shaheen Akhtar (Clover Team), Abbie Wild (Bradford Royal Infirmary), Sara Hollins (Bradford Royal Infirmary), Julie Newbold (NCT), Alison Brown (Better Start Bradford), Haleema Farooq (Better Start Bradford), Carolyn Sadler (CBMDC), Jane Dickens (BDCT), Jo Squires (My wellbeing College)
Apologies: Liz Firth (Chair), Masira Hans (Sharing Voices), Aamnah Rahman (Born in Bradford), Ruth Hayward (CCG’s), Charlotte Dunster-Page (Little Minds Matter), Joanne- Marie Stubbs (Bradford Royal Infirmary)
1. Welcome / Introductions/Apologies\
All were welcomed.
2. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
The minutes of the last meeting on 26th March 2019 , were agreed as a true and correct record
3. Active Discussion Section – Perinatal Mental Health
Guest Speaker: Joanne Squires from My Wellbeing College
MWC presentation Jo Squires 25.06.19
Guest Speaker – Gemma Smith – Family Action
Actions:
- YS to circulate presentation with the minutes
- YS to circulate presentation with the minutes
4. Updates
Bradford
There are now a two bays set up at BRI Maternity suite, the rationale behind this development is make it a safe environment for women being induced. The feedback from the women having given birth in the suite, has been very positive as they have been bonding with each other and also the midwife. Sara felt this is helping achieve much better care on the labour ward. However, high risk ladies will still be induced on the labour ward.
Sara also fed back that the Birth Centre recently has had some recent staffing issues (sickness) over a two week period. These have now been resolved.
The team have been involved in some fundraising initiatives, the funds raised will go towards helping the induction ward.
Sara explained they would ideally like two or three women patients, who have used the induction ward in the last month or two, to help with the 15 steps.
The Maternity Assessment Centre has had a very positive response. It has been flagged up nationally that women in Bradford are accessing services much quicker than before. Whereas previously the most common comments had been “we didn’t know you were open 24 hours”
Sara fed back on the recent run of service diverts and explained it was due to complex staffing issues. Even though they do have more midwifes than needed, there was a two week period where a number of staff were on sick leave and this did have an impact on service delivery. The birth centre was closed for a short period of time. These staffing issue are now resolved.
Plans are being discussed to link in with The Wellbeing College to look at doing a piece of work, to improve hearing the voice of bereaved parents.
Two new roles in the Maternity Team are in post. Rea Halstead – Infant Feeding Coordinator and a Lead Midwife in Governance who will be coordinating the Midwifery Team
There is an Open Day at Bradford Royal Infirmary Maternity Unit on the 17th August 2019, for further information please contact Beck Palethorpe.
Action:
- SH to send further info
Voluntary
Bradford Doulas will be commencing recruitment for a new batch of volunteers
5. Feedback from the 5 themes
Breastfeeding – Jane Dickens – Strategic Breastfeeding Lead – Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust
Jane talked briefly about her role and confirmed she will be doing a full presentation at the next meeting, under the active discussion section. Jane welcomed the opportunity to link and work with the partnership. She also spoke about supporting breastfeeding and how it should be a societal collective responsibility, ensuring women are equipped with information and support in order to make an informed decision. Jane stated that the collective new main message would be ‘How we feed our baby’
Infant Mortality – Rashmi Sudhur
The partnership work on Infant Mortality is being overseen by Every Baby Matters Group, a new person Duncan Cooper is now leading this work. At a meeting held last November , the following priority areas were identified genetic inheritance smoking in pregnancy nutrition of mothers and babies
Continuity of Carer – Sara Hollins
Abbie advised that patient figures have doubled at BRI and discussions are taking place around having 2 teams or a bigger team to accommodate this increase. Eighteen births that took place in one month were with a named midwife or a known midwife. More Homebirth Community pockets are forming and the feedback from the families is very positive. There are various projects on the horizon, the Birth Centre Model being the next step.
There is a Teenage Pregnancy Midwife on call throughout the week, who will visit women at home to assess, and will also accompany them into hospital if needs be. Ideally it would be very beneficial if there was two of these posts.
Sara informed delivering continuity of carer is a much needed model , but that operating the model does have some challenges for staff on the ground.
Perinatal Mental Health – Masira Hans
The issue of child contact for mothers sectioned under the mental health act was raised at the perinatal and infant mental health task and finish group. Masira provided case studies to commissioners who shall follow up and update on the progress.
SMABs team are now growing and have launched a ‘Compassion for Mums Wellbeing’ scheme encouraging businesses and organisations to show more compassion for mothers. BSB have understood there is an overlap of services, with some members receiving support from all services but there are a few who do not receive support from any services. This means we need to make people aware of all services and encourage engagement, mapping exercises are now being carried out for all BSB projects. My wellbeing college are now working with those with mild to moderate mental health wellbeing condition and looking at providing this service in children’s centres.
More work needs to be carried out to understand all services available for mothers, i.e. specialist services, services for high/low MH needs, this has been placed on agendas for a number of meetings.
Healthy Living ( Cross cutting) – Laila Ahmed
Laila shared information on the launch of a Living Well, an initiative from the local NHS, Bradford Council and the voluntary community sector. To make it easier to live a healthy, more active lifestyle. Living Well launch week was 22nd June. Events being held at Airedale Shopping Centre, Broadway, City parks and across other venue. It is about making one positive change. New Living Well website mylivingwell.co.uk with online health quiz, personalised advice and information about local organisations that offer help and advice.
Seldom Heard Groups – Liz Firth
Alison Brown (BSB) raised the point that Pregnant Asylum Seekers and Refugee women attending for antenatal appointments are entitled to a bus fare refund on production of their ticket.
Unfortunately the majority of women are not aware of this and this information is not being shared with them. The process of claiming their travel back is also not an easy one and involves them having to go to the cashier’s office on the main hospital site.
This is not an ideal situation as most struggle to do this. A recent example of this was a mother, with a small child and pelvic girdle pain found it impossible to do so.
Alison’s query for maternity units is would it be possible for women to claim back the refund on the actual maternity ward site?
Action:
- Relevant maternity service staff to give information to those entitled to claim back travel.
6. Member News
7. Any Other Business
Sara Hollins asked the question how they as a team can respond to issues raised via Grassroots channels. Is there a process by which they can be made aware of any issues flagged up?
Laila said that she would be soon attending a Grassroots information session being organised by the CCG’s and will circulate information requested to all MVP members. Laila stressed that the information going into Grassroots was more “softer intelligence”, the good, not so good and indifferent views
Grassroots was not a route for submitting complaints (there were existing pathways for these) but rather about collecting people positive and negative experiences about any services funded by the CCG’s in Bradford and AWC.
Alison responded that feeding back the issues would be a relatively simple process.
and what happens as a result.
Action:
- LA to share Grassroots information pack which details the channels and process. I.e. where does the information go and what happens as a result.
8. Date of next meeting is Tuesday 26th November 2019 at 10am at CNet.
To download a PDF of these minutes, please click here: