Better Births Review
Following a national review of maternity services in 2016, the ‘Better Births’ report was published which sets out plans to make care safer and give women greater control and more choice.
The requirements of ‘Better Births’ are:
Improve choice and personalisation of maternity services so that:
- All pregnant women have a personalised care plan;
- All women are able to make choices about their maternity care, during pregnancy, birth and after their baby is born;
- Most women receive continuity of the person caring for them during pregnancy, birth and after their baby is born;
- More women are able to give birth in midwifery settings (at home and in midwifery units).
Improving the safety of maternity care so that all services:
- Have reduced rates of still birth, neonatal death, maternal death and brain injury during birth by 20% and are on track to make a 50% reduction by 2025 as outlined in NHS England’s ‘Saving Babies Lives, A Care Bundle for Reducing Stillbirth’;
- Are investigating and learning from incidents and sharing this learning through their Local Maternity Service (LMS) and with others;
- Are fully engaged in the development and implementation of the NHS Improvement Maternity and Neonatal Quality Improvement Programme.
Our Local Maternity and Neonatal Transformation
The Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) has been set up in response to NHS England’s ‘Better Births’ report which sets out a vision for safer, more personalised maternity care that reflects women’s choices and offers continuing joined-up care.
NHS organisations, Healthwatch, local councils, service users and other partners are working together as a Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) to design and implement improvements in maternity and neonatal services.
Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin have established a Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) to ensure service transformation happens at a local level.
This plan describes how the LMNS will transform local maternity and neonatal services. We have developed this LMNS plan in partnership with stakeholders to ensure the vision we propose is realistic. However, we know that we need to develop co-production even further and is something we will strive to do, embedding co-production at the heart of all activity as this plan is progressed.
Please click here to view the plan.
For an update on the work of the LMNS, please click here.
LMNS Vision
More women and their families will:
- Be healthier during their pregnancy and will have a better understanding of how to keep themselves and their baby healthy;
- Have better information about pregnancy and parenthood that is personal to their circumstances;
- Have support with their emotional wellbeing throughout their pregnancy and after their baby is born;
- Have more choice in the care they receive and will feel involved in decisions about their care;
- Be able to access a wider range of services closer to home;
- Know the midwife caring for them throughout pregnancy, birth and after the baby is born;
- Give birth in a midwifery-led setting;
- Be involved in how services are designed and delivered.
Staff will:
- Feel proud of the services they deliver;
- Work within a learning culture and receive regular training alongside those they work with;
- Be well supported by service leaders;
- Act as advocates for the women they care for and feel empowered to deliver great service.
Services will be:
- Safer;
- Designed and delivered in partnership with women and their families;
- Working better together through community hubs;
- Constantly learning and improving;
- Sharing more information with each other.
LMNS Governance
The Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin LMNS Programme Board is overseen by the Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin Strategic Partnership Board.
The Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin Strategic Partnership Board oversees the implementation of the local Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP).
This governance arrangement ensures alignment of the local maternity transformation plan with the wider STP system transformation activity.
Regionally, the Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin LMNS Programme Board reports to the Midlands Perinatal Board, which in turn is accountable to the National Maternity Transformation Programme.
The Programme Board is responsible for:
- Developing and overseeing the implementation of the local transformation plan. Ensuring transformation activity is in line with recommendations arising from the national maternity review and subsequent national strategies and policies in relation to maternity and neonatal care;
- Agreeing funding allocations in line with the priorities identified;
- Overseeing progress against agreed deliverables;
- Obtaining evidence as assurance that agreed objectives are being met;
- Report progress and escalate any risks and issues through STP/ICS governance arrangements;
- Establishing work streams and sub-groups in key areas as required to deliver the programme;
- Disseminating information to appropriate stakeholders internally and externally;
- Making recommendations to STP/ICS and others in order to influence change.
LMNS Annual Reports
How you can get involved
The NHS in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin is asking women, their partners and families, and health professionals who are working in maternity services to get involved in shaping local maternity services.
We need the experiences and views of women, their partners and families who have recently used the services to help us understand what women and their families need at every stage of their journey and to help us to improve services.
Speaking about this, Maternity Voices Development Co-ordinator, said: “We can’t do this successfully without the input of women, their partners and families who have used or are currently using the services. Working together we can try to make every woman’s experience of the care they receive before, during and after pregnancy a more positive one.”
If you’d like to get involved, please click on the link below:
Maternity Services at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust (SaTH)
Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust deliver local maternity services, however women can decide where they choose to receive maternity care.
For further information around maternity services for Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin please click on the link below:
NHS Choices
NHS Choices is a great source of information for the options available to you when it comes to choosing where you would like to give birth as well as a full list of maternity services available to you locally.
For information about local choices please use the link below:
My Birth Choices in Shropshire
‘The Which? Birth Choice’ tool has been developed to help women and their partners make confident and informed decisions when planning where to give birth.
As per quality statement 1 of NICE QS105 on intrapartum care, ‘The Which? Birth Choice’ tool highlights the birth settings available.
The tool encourages women to consider an out-of-hospital setting where appropriate, in-line with the recommendation that for women planning to give birth at home or in a midwife-led unit there is a higher likelihood of a ‘normal’ (vaginal) birth with less intervention.
Expectant parents are intended users of the tool. Supported by the Royal College of Midwives we also promote the tool as a resource that midwives can use when talking to women about their options.
Other useful information
For information on Public Health Nursing Service and Family Nurse Partnership please see below: