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Our Maternity Network is working closely with providers across Greater Manchester (GM) and Eastern Cheshire to implement the immediate safety recommendations made in the recent interim Ockenden Report.
Following concerns raised by two bereaved families whose babies had sadly died shortly following their birth at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, an inquiry was requested by the Government in December 2016.
The inquiry was chaired by senior registered midwife, Donna Ockenden, a clinical expert in maternity, who was tasked with assessing the quality of previous investigations, and how the trust had implemented recommendations relating to newborn, infant and maternal harm.
The review is covering 1,862 cases, which has led to an extension of the review’s scope and delivery.
An interim report has been published based on a review of 250 cases between 2000 and 2018, with seven immediate and essential actions the review team wants to be shared across all maternity services.
These include recommendations for enhancing patient safety; how we can best listen to women and families; developing more effective staff training and ways of working; managing complex pregnancies and risk assessments throughout pregnancies; monitoring fetal wellbeing; and how to ensure patients have enough information to make informed consent.
Chantal Knight, the SCNs’ maternity safety lead, said: “We need to continue to learn from these tragic cases, listen to families and give women and their babies the safe and high quality care they all deserve.”
A second and final Ockenden Report will follow later this year.
The GM Smokefree Pregnancy Programme, which the Maternity Network helps promote across GM and Eastern Cheshire, has been recognised nationally as an example of best practice.
The programme was recently mentioned as “an area of exemplar practice” at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group meeting on Smoking, Health and Baby Loss after helping to reduce the number of women and their significant others who smoke while expecting a child.
Latest statistics since programme implementation show there have been at least 510 additional smokefree babies born across the city region and rates of smoking at the time of delivery are falling faster than elsewhere in England as a whole.
Jane Coyne, strategic lead for the Smokefree Pregnancy programme, said: “In these unprecedented times, it has been more important than ever to highlight the risks of smoking during pregnancy and to provide support for not only pregnant women, but their partners and family members too.
“The last year has seen significant challenges within maternity services, but reducing smoking in pregnancy at pace and scale remains a significant priority for Greater Manchester. Throughout the pandemic the team of specialist stop smoking midwives and maternity support workers have gone above and beyond to ensure there has been continuous support to engage those who are smoking during pregnancy. The figures show that, with the right support, expectant parents are quitting and more and more babies are getting the best possible start in life.”
One of the ways in which mums-to-be have been encouraged to stop smoking is with the use of carbon monoxide monitoring, which was put on temporary hold at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, but is now being safely restarted, with a training refresh being rolled-out for midwifery teams.
On Thursday, March 18, the programme team alongside guest speakers will be hosting an event called Greater Manchester Doing Things Differently to End Smoking in Pregnancy to mark the third anniversary of the innovative programme.
This will be an opportunity to share the learnings, celebrate the incredible work of maternity teams across the city region, explore barriers and enablers to change, and consider how the programme can translate into wider transformation work across England.
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The SCNs’ Children and Young People Network held a GM Child Health and Wellbeing Stakeholder Forum to explore how children and young people can play a part in an integrated health and care system.
More than 100 delegates joined last month’s event from a range of GM organisations, as well as children, young people and families, representatives from the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector and delegates from other parts of England, who were interested to hear of the steps being taken in GM to integrate care.
There were national presentations from the clinical lead and young people representatives. They summarised the Children and Young People (CYP) Transformation programme and the importance of the CYP Voice within it.
There are two key programmes underway - the Greater Manchester Child Health and Wellbeing (GMCH&WB) Framework and the GM Children and Young People’s Plan. These programmes link to other CYP programmes across physical and mental health, social care, education, youth justice and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.
These factors make 2021 the right time to join up and develop potentially one GM CYP plan, particularly in an era of Covid-19 responses and recovery plans.
There was a very powerful CYP voice session in which delegates heard about the GM system-wide work underway to capture the views of CYP and families and embed them in future plans.
The last presentation by a parent of a 16-year-old girl with additional needs, encapsulated the need for change and in so doing has set the challenge to the GM CYP system - what difference will all this make to the lives of CYP?
The event showed how much can be done in a short time to capture the views and recommendations of a sector-wide stakeholder group. A report of the forum will be circulated and used throughout the GM health and social care system to inform and influence the evolving GM governance and refreshed plan for CYP and their families.
The Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSC Partnership) and the medical director executive leaders group are committed to progressing and establishing a wider clinical and professional leadership model.
The SCNs are playing a key role in supporting Dr Tom Tasker, as chair of the medical director executive leaders' group, to bring together a key group of clinical and professional leaders, helping to identify how this new way of working will function and play its part in the wider development of the new integrated care system for Greater Manchester.
This is excellent news for the SCNs, our clinicians are central to our networks, enabling a multi-disciplinary approach to our work. Clinical professional working feels like a natural progression for the SCNs to be firmly involved in and will continue to enhance the work of our clinical leaders.
The Palliative and End of Life Care team is continuing its monthly virtual event series addressing inequalities in access to care.
This series, inspired by the 2016 CQC report entitled ‘A Different Ending’ and following on from the 2018/19 vulnerable population lecture series which was designed by Springhill Hospice and St Anne’s Hospice, sees the Network continuing its work to ensure that tackling inequalities remains a key focus area (watch a video summary).
These interactive sessions have proved to be extremely popular with an average attendance of 100-plus, demonstrating the professional commitment to reduce inequalities of care.
Even more striking is the England–wide reach of these sessions, which have been streamed through MS Teams. Health and care professionals from across the country have been using the opportunity to tune in, engage and reflect upon the very real challenges outlined, share best practice and think about ways in which we could improve outcomes for patients.
While the series is GM and Eastern Cheshire-focused, we remain certain that it would be beneficial to other geographical areas as the issues discussed will be similar.
The next event will be held on Wednesday, March 24, 1pm-3pm.
(The image above shows some of the vulnerable groups discussed during the lecture series).
There are two exciting developments from the Network this month.
Firstly, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust has approved the extension to the opening hours of its regional thrombectomy service. At the moment, this complex procedure to mechanically remove blood clots which cause strokes is only available daily during office hours. The extended service will offer treatment 24/7 and work is underway at Salford Royal to introduce this out in the coming months.
The Network is also pleased to announce it will be working closely with two local organisations to increase the recognition of stroke in black and minority ethnic communities.
Our data shows that fewer people are dialling 999 quickly enough to access medical treatments within the time critical windows of four and six hours. Our projects with the British Muslim Heritage Centre (see logo top left) and the Caribbean and African Health Network will focus on engaging with local community leaders and harnessing their channels of communication in local populations. Watch this space!
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Dementia United, which works with the SCNs’ Dementia Network, has issued its latest newsletter.
Dementia United is the GMHSC Partnership’s dementia programme and aims to make the region the best place to live if you have the condition, or are caring for someone with dementia.
We were delighted to read the feedback from a member of the team who has recently left the Maternity Network.
Craig Marshall is assistant chief finance officer at Bury CCG and was brought into the SCNs to be maternity finance lead to support the maternity implementation plan, focusing on the latest Saving Babies Lives programme and continuity of carer initiative.
He completed his SCNs’ role recently and forwarded a note about his experience working for us:
“For me the experience has been eye opening. I have worked with some amazing people, I have been given insight to a whole different world of strategic commissioning and above all, for the last two years I have really felt that we can make a difference to the patients (who are the ones that matter).
“I look forward to seeing how the journey for Better Births grows and comes to flourish. I am truly grateful to you all for the experience over the last two years. We have some truly wonderful maternity services out there and they are made up by dedicated individuals that come to work every day to make a difference.”
Many thanks to Craig for both his great work while he was with us and his kind comments on how the networks are trying to improve services for patients.
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