Dear Colleague,
************************************************************
Children's National Service Framework - Maternity Module
Open Forum meetings - London and Leeds January 2003
************************************************************
Two meetings are being planned for women and men who have used the
maternity services and now act as representatives for their local
community. The meetings will be held in London (15 January at Avonmouth
House near Elephant and Castle) and in Leeds (23 January at the Hotel
Metropole, King Street) and we hope you will consider coming along to
have your say about:
· what changes are needed to improve maternity care and postnatal
services for women and their families,
· how a broad range of parents and user reps can best contribute
to the planning and monitoring of maternity services in the future.
There is a reply slip with this letter so that you can book a place.
We have also attached a questionnaire to this letter. Please fill it in
whether or not you plan to come to one of the meetings and return it in
the reply-paid envelope.
As you may be aware, a Children's National Service Framework (NSF) is
being developed, which will define the core standards for provision of
NHS services for children and maternity care. The Children's NSF will
be made up of a number of different modules, including one on maternity
services. A multidisciplinary group for the maternity module has been
set up, jointly chaired by Meryl Thomas, Vice-President RCM and Heather
Mellows, Junior Vice President RCOG. Responsibility for developing
recommendations for different aspects of maternity care have been
delegated to a small number of sub-groups:
· pre-birth,
· birth,
· post-birth & neonate,
· inequalities/access and
· user involvement.
In addition, a priority area for improvement, maternity data
collection/statistics, is likely to be linked with a wider data
collection group.
We want to involve a wide range of user representatives. This letter is
being sent to members and chairs of Maternity Services Liaison
Committees in England and Wales and others whom we hope will pass it on
to user representatives on maternity forums, as well as to relevant
community groups and individuals.
Please pass a copy on to any contacts you have locally.
We are looking:
· for creative and innovative examples of user involvement,
particularly around vulnerable and marginalized groups.
· at the future role of MSLCs, considering both user involvement
and multidisciplinary forums;
A key priority will be working to ensure that, as far as possible, user
involvement is representative of the diverse communities served by
local maternity services. We will take account of the work of the
Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH).
Your role will give you a particular perspective and insights into the
strengths, weaknesses, assumptions and opportunities in your local
maternity service. By sharing these with us, you could make a positive
contribution towards the final recommendations.
Please book a place to participate in one of the consultation workshops
to be held in January; expenses will be reimbursed. Please complete
the attached questionnaire.
Thank you for your interest, we hope to hear from you soon. The reply
slip for the meeting should go to Elizabeth Connell at the Department
of Health (address on the slip) and the questionnaire should be
returned to the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit in the envelope
provided.
You can also email to:
[log in to unmask] and
[log in to unmask]
Sue Eardley Mary Newburn
Chairman Head of Policy Research
Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust National Childbirth Trust
----------------------
Dr Jane Sandall
Professor of Midwifery and Women's Health
King's College
57 Waterloo Road
London
SE1 8WA
Tel: 020 7848 3605
Fax: 020 7848 3506
email: [log in to unmask]
|