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Regulation changes risk leaving midwives without representation – RCM

Midwives have warned that government proposals to abolish an additional tier of statutory supervision could leave them without a voice in the NMC.

The Department of Health opened a consultation last week on the new proposals, which are intended to enforce midwifery supervision and prevent serious failings of care such as those leading to infant deaths at the Morecambe Bay hospital.

The plans include abolishing the additional statutory tier in the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for supervision of midwives, and are supported by the NMC.

Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), said that although they supported the idea of non-statutory supervision for midwives and the proposals to upgrade Fitness to Practice procedures included in the consultation, they were “concerned about the system being able to sustain a non-statutory framework of supervision for midwives in the long term”.

She also warned that the proposals could mean there was “no voice for midwifery” in the NMC and midwives would largely be supervised by another profession.

Warwick said that although the NMC has appointed a one day a week midwifery adviser and a midwifery panel, these are non-statutory safeguarding positions that can easily be abolished.

She added that NMC have provided the RCM with assurance that the proposed changes do not affect the separate registration of midwives, direct entry to the register as a midwife, the protected title of a midwife, the protected function of attendance on a woman in childbirth or separate competencies and pre-registration education standards for midwives.

(Image c. David Jones from the Press Association)