Introduction
This is our maternity and neonatal strategy, providing a clear purpose and direction to provide the best maternity (and neonatal) service and care for women, babies and families.
The document outlines how we will deliver a maternity service to meet the needs of our population. We are committed to ensuring the service meets the needs now and in the future by listening to our service
users with co-production central to all planning and development. We are committed to providing our workforce with an environment and leadership that supports and encourages development, health and well-being. Our workforce have demonstrated their dedication to improving our maternity service especially following the COVID-19 pandemic and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection. Our strategy is aligned with the vision and recommendations of the following national policy documents as well as the key recommendations from national investigations into maternal and neonatal adverse outcomes. Our strategy covers a period of 2 years until 2026 though it is a relatively short period of a time for a strategy as it is reflective of the National Maternity and Neonatal Three year delivery published in 2023. The strategy will be iterative process to align to the University Hospitals Tees strategic priorities developed with service users and key stakeholders.
Policies and national recommendations
- Three-year delivery plan for Maternity and Neonatal services
- NHS Long Term Plan
- Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle
- Ockenden report
- Kirkup report: Reading the signals
- Maternity Incentive Scheme
- NHS operational guidance
- Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnership guidance
About us
North Tees site
- Consultant led birth unit with low dependency rooms
- Antenatal and postnatal ward
- Day assessment unit
- Antenatal clinic and ultrasound
- Special care baby unit
Hartlepool site
- Day assessment unit
- Antenatal clinic and ultrasound department
- Stand alone midwifery birth unit
2,553 babies born at the Trust in 2024
Our vision
We will deliver the best and safest care to women, babies and their families.
Our vision is based on four priorities:
- Priority one: Provide personalised care for women and families
- Priority two: Build a culture of safety, learning and support
- Priority three: Be an employer of choice
- Priority four: Robust structures and systems
Our priorities: personalised care
Personalised care gives people choice and control over how their care is planned and delivered. Women will receive compassionate and kind care, and be listened to. Reducing health inequalities and hearing from our service users is fundamental to our strategy.
Our ambition is to:
- Offer all women personalised care and support plans.
- Provide Information that is evidenced base, unbiased and accessible.
- Provide the best start in life for families by providing smoking cessation advice and access to specialist services.
- Reduce health inequalities such as providing an equitable service and ease of access to services.
- Co-produce service improvements with the Maternity and Neonatal Voice
- Partnership.
Our priorities: Workforce
The ambition to deliver the best maternity and neonatal care requires a skilled and committed workforce. Attracting and retaining talent is essential for the success of the service.
We will provide a clear workforce strategy that priorities employee satisfaction, growth and development, inclusivity and well-being that is crucial for becoming the best employer.
By implanting the below initiatives we can create a supportive and dynamic work environment.
Our ambition is to:
- Attract top talent – develop an appealing branding to attract candidates.
- Foster a supportive and inclusive workplace where employees feel valued.
- Workforce health and wellbeing will be prioritised through initiatives such as a staff health and wellbeing council.
- Promote and support continuous learning and growth and ensure opportunities for professional development and career advancement.
Our priorities: Culture of safety, learning and support
Our culture is shaped by the behaviour of everyone in it. In maternity and neonatal services, a safety culture improves the experience of care and outcomes for women and babies and supports staff to thrive.
Features of a positive safety and learning culture include; compassion, professionalism, team work, respect and communication.
Our ambition is to:
- Provide a psychological safe environment
- Ensure safety reviews are accessible, inclusive and supportive
- Share learning widely
- Provide access to the Freedom To Speak Up guardian and Professional Midwifery Advocates for colleagues
- Clear clinical escalation processes for clinical staff
- Address Unprofessional behaviours
- Apply the Principles of Duty of Candour and Patient Safety Incidence Response Framework and treat families with compassion and respect following a concern of care
- Work closely with the Board Safety Champions to promote learning and understanding of the service
- To provide local data through a maternity data dashboard
Our priorities: Robust structures and systems
To deliver our strategy we will ensure we have the building blocks, which are clear structures and standards.
Our ambition is to:
- Implement best practice through multi-disciplinary team involvement and a clear governance process
- Work with the North East North Cumbria Local Maternity and Neonatal System to standardise care pathways to promote consistency and equity of care provision.
- Have a central focus on co-production with the Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnership
- Adopt national recommendations to improve outcomes for mothers and babies
- Share and embed learning opportunities from safety events to improve outcomes for mothers and babies
- Involve women and families in learning event reviews
- Develop a communication strategy to promote transparency and engagement with our colleagues
Our priorities: Commitment
To deliver the strategy the service will review the project plan through the governance process. Membership of the meetings include clinical staff, leadership and management roles, service users, external partners, non executive and executive directors.
Governance will go through the following processes:
- Ward meetings
- Senior team meetings
- Perinatal council
- Quality committee
- Board of directors
Downloadable PDF for print
Click the link below to view or download our corporate strategy 2022 to 2025 in PDF form:
Maternity and neonatal strategy 2025 (1MB pdf)
If you use assistive technology such as a screen reader and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email us at [email protected]