Shaping Personalised Care in Maternity and Neonatal Services

We are improving how people receive personalised care in maternity and neonatal services. We hosted a workshop to shape what this might look like. Find out what happened and our next steps in this news post.

What is Personalised Care?

Personalised care in NHS England

NHS England defines personalised care as giving people choice and control over how their care is planned and delivered, based on their individual strengths, needs and what matters most to them.

This happens within a system that makes the most of the expertise, capacity and potential of people, families and communities in delivering better outcomes and experiences.

Personalised Care in the North East and North Cumbria

In the North East and North Cumbria, there is a lack of shared understanding of personalised care within maternity and neonatal services. This lack of shared understanding exists between women, between women and clinicians, and among clinicians.

As a result, there is often a gap between the expectations of women and what clinicians and services can provide.

The ‘Choice and Control Workshop’ – March 2024

Working together to improve personalised care

In March 2024, we hosted a ‘Choice and Control Workshop’. This was attended by over 60 people, including women and families, independent midwives, doulas and staff working maternity and neonatal services. The workshop explored:

• What is personalised care?
• What does informed consent mean to women and birthing people?
• How can we support shared decision-making in maternity and neonatal care?

During the workshop, participants found 75 points where women and clinicians make choices during pregnancy and birth. This highlighted the variety and complexity of decisions, that both groups need think about.

One person noted: “Maybe this is part of the problem – there are so many choices and controls available.

“Both for women to respond to, at what might be an emotional and perhaps unfamiliar time in their lives, and also for all the clinicians who might live this every day, whilst having to hold in their heads many of the nuances around all of the choices and controls, some of which might be atypical.”

Key Questions Explored

People worked in groups to explore these questions for each choice and control point found:

• What choices and controls are available to women and birthing people?
• What information do people need to inform their decisions?
• How should information be shared to avoid coercion?
• When should information be shared and decisions made on the pathway?
• Where and how should decisions be recorded?

Personalised Care Principles – A Shared-Decision Making Tool

To help people make these choices, four co-produced principles were agreed at the workshop. This has formed a shared decision-making tool. This tool aims to:

• build trust between clinicians and women
• support open conversations around choice and control

It can be used by anyone accessing maternity services, plus staff working in maternity and neonatal. This will be available soon.

Next Steps

Your support and feedback on the day have made a huge impact on how we shape the personalised care workstream across North East and North Cumbria. It is vital that we listen to and work with women and families with compassion.

Since the workshop, we have been working on a Personalised Care toolkit. This will help staff, women and families think about personalised care and make informed decisions.

This will include:

• The shared decision-making tool
• Videos to help women choose their place of birth
• Information leaflets on choices, consent, and personalised care
• Training for maternity and neonatal staff

How are we making the resources accessible?

We have been creating videos and leaflets with feedback from staff and Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnership (MNVP) leads. This is to make sure the voices of women, birthing people and staff are heard and listened to.

Resources will be:

• Created in language that is easy to understand. We are working with the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board Health Literacy team to do this.
• Created in Easy Read format.
• Translated in the top 5 spoken languages in the North East and North Cumbria.
• Available online and printed where possible.
• A mix of videos and text.

To stay up to date on this work, please follow us on social media or keep an eye on our website.