NHS Yorkshire and the Humber - Maternity matters

‘Maternity Matters: Choice, access and continuity of care in a safe service’ was published in April 2007. It builds on the National Service Framework for Children, Families and Young People, published in 2004. The aim is to ensure that women have the best possible experience during pregnancy and child birth and that families have a healthy start, knowing that pregnancy is often a time when families make positive lifestyle choices.

Maternity Matters introduces new national choice guarantees for women. By the end of 2009, women will have choice in:

how they access maternity care
the type of antenatal care they receive
the place of birth (a birth at home supported by a midwife, a birth in a midwifery facility supported by a midwife, or a birth in a hospital supported by a team of clinicians including a midwife and obstetrician)
how and where to access post-natal care

In order to help women access any maternity service of their choice the NHS Choices website will help direct women to the nearest maternity service. In addition to these choice guarantees there are a number of other indicators of success that maternity services will need to be able to demonstrate that they can provide.

The Operating Framework (2007/08) said that, during 2007/08, PCTs should assess current maternity services and set out their plans and strategies for meeting the new commitment set out in the document. Commissioners are currently working closely with maternity services and women who use local services to make the changes needed by the end of December 2009.

The current Operating Framework (2008/09) makes clear that 2008/09 will be the year of delivery - PCTs must ensure that sufficient numbers of maternity staff and neo-natal teams are in place to meet local needs.

PCTs are responsible for workforce planning, working with their provider organisations. NHS Yorkshire and the Humber will assess local plans and take a strategic view of the different needs across Yorkshire and Humber for future education commissioning needs and other support.

The Healthcare Commission undertook a review of maternity services in 2007. Part of this review consisted of a survey of the views of thousands of women who had given birth in a three month period. The review found mixed results, with Trusts in the north of England performing relatively well. In Yorkshire and the Humber four of our trusts were found to be ‘Best’ performing, these were – Calderdale and Huddersfield, Doncaster and Bassetlaw, Harrogate and District, Hull and East Yorkshire. Seven of our services were rated ‘better’, one was ‘Fair’ and two were ‘least well’. The Healthcare Commission is committed to undertaking a similar review in the future to determine the success of Maternity Matters.

In support of Maternity Matters we have two Department of Health care services improvement partnership (CSIP) early implementer sites - Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Doncaster and Bassetlaw hospitals NHS foundation trust - who are working on new roles in their maternity teams and early access to maternity services by women who have additional needs.

Healthy Ambitions, the regional NHS next stage review report aligns the aspirations of Maternity Matters with those of clinicians and others from Yorkshire and the Humber. Various workshops have been held with provider service leads to explore new roles as well as their underpinning education needs, and to share innovations in practice and develop some shared learning.

The PCTs and their providers have assessed their 5 year workforce requirements for maternity services staff, please click on the links below to access the reports:

pdf icon Maternity Services Workforce Report (452.8KB)