30.03.16
National Maternity Review pilot trusts to be announced in September
The first pilot trusts to implement an improved plan for NHS maternity care will be announced in September.
Papers put before the NHS England board ahead of this week’s meeting say that the National Maternity Review recommendations will be implemented in an ‘early adopter’ programme, similar to the Vanguards used for introducing joined-up care.
It says that it will launch an expression of interest for the programme in June and announce the first sites to adopt it in September.
The review, published last month, recommends more personalised care for mothers, better postnatal and perinatal mental health care, and community-based midwives.
Options for early adopted sites include the chance to become Maternity Choice and Personalisation Pioneers.
NHS England says it expects local health economies to take the lead in implementing the recommendations, and that it will establish a CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework to monitor their progress.
The board paper adds that NHS England will also work with partners including the Royal Colleges and the Health and Social Care Information Centre to develop benchmarks for measuring CCGs’ progress.
They also recommend changes to the maternity care workforce including supporting the midwifery workforce to move to continuity of carer models, transforming the culture of maternity staff to embed multi-professionalism, and shaping medical staffing to ensure sustainability of obstetric care.
Other recommendations include developing a digital portal for each pregnant woman, encouraging the rollout of electronic maternity care records if funding is available, and developing a plan to reform the maternity tariff, following the publication of this year’s NHS tariffs.
Other recent NHS actions to improve maternity care include new guidelines for care providers to help meet a target of halving the stillbirth rate by 2030.