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Y&H MatNeo Network Webinar - Intergenerational Teamworking & How Human Factors influence

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Y&H MatNeo Network Webinar - Intergenerational Teamworking & How Human Factors influence

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Y&H MatNeo Network Webinar around Intergenerational Team Working & How Human Factors influence

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Y&H MatNeo Network Webinar around Intergenerational Team Working & How Human Factors influence

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introducing the new ABC (Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth) Programme & plans. Upcoming Events and much more...

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Find out more here!

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‘Inter-Generational Teamworking in the Maternal & Neonatal Setting’

A free shared learning network webinar for colleagues across Yorkshire & Humber.

Presentations & interactive sessions around:

Essentials for positive and effective team relationships in everyday work

Human Factors & the impact on teamwork

How generational diversity can be a positive on teamwork in the workplace

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MatNeo SIP – Yorkshire & Humber Support Offer Focus for 2025 - 2026

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MatNeo SIP – Yorkshire & Humber Support Offer Focus for 2025 - 2026

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An overview of the delivery plan for this years commission

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MatNeo SIP LMNS 2025-26 Support Offer Focus

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Building Successful Perinatal Optimisation Teams Webinar

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Building Successful Perinatal Optimisation Teams Webinar

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Webinar to give an overview of the BAPM Toolkit to support delivery of the

Perinatal Optimisation Pathway

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WHO World Patient Safety Day ‘Patient Safety from the Start’ The Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Collaborative discuss in their Newsletter how they are raising awareness and supporting safer care in the region

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MatNeo Newsletter World Patient Safety Day September 2025

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Reflections on changes in the provision and safety in maternity care over the past 50 years.

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Reflections on changes in the provision and safety in maternity care over the past 50 years.

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Viv Dolby shares with us a fascinating blog highlighting the rapidity of numerous changes within maternity care over her career and the impact

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Viv Dolby World Patient Safety blog August 2025

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‘How is Psychological Safety Supported in Your MatNeo Setting?’ Webinar

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‘How is Psychological Safety Supported in Your MatNeo Setting?’ Webinar

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Discussing the impact of poor psychological safety on teams, how to measure & potentially improve this through guest speakers and workshops

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MatNeo Psych Safety Webinar July 2025 - To Share

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We would like to invite you to our next learning community event for Perinatal Leadership Teams & Culture Coaches:

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How we are making a difference to Maternal & Neonatal Care 

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How we are making a difference to Maternal & Neonatal Care 

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A free unique face to face regional showcase event in Leeds, sharing good practice and learning. Aimed at neonatal & maternity teams, leaders and all areas dedicated to delivering excellent safe care. Interactive presentations, case studies & workshops

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How are we making a difference to

maternal & neonatal care? Upcoming events

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NHS Networks - Free resource for anyone working in or with the health and care sector

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Units

The Yorkshire & Humber neonatal network is made up of 19 different hospitals and covers a geographical area ranging from York to Chesterfield (North to South) & Grimsby to the Pennines (East to West).

We also have a designated transport team - Embrace - who transfer babies by ambulance, helicopter and occasionally by aeroplane. A series of videos can be accessed here which explain the transfer process and why this may need to take place.

Within our network we have four hospitals which provide the majority of the Intensive Care which is required in our area. Some of these units will also provide surgery and post surgical care:

NICUs (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit)

Many other hospitals provide High Dependency care

LNUs (Local Neonatal Unit)

A small number of hospitals focus on Special Care

SCUs (Special Care Units)

One unit solely provides neonatal surgical care

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Yorkshire & Humber Neonatal ODN - NHS Networks

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The Yorkshire & Humber neonatal network is made up of 19 different hospitals and covers a geographical area ranging from York to Chesterfield (North to South) & Grimsby to the Pennines (East to West). We also have a designated transport team - Embrace - who transfer babies by ambulance, helicopter and occasionally by aeroplane.

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Early Breast Milk for Preterm Babies Webinar June 2024

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Early Breast Milk for Preterm Babies Webinar June 2024

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Presentations from a webinar bringing together a range of speakers from across Yorkshire and Humber, all working to improve the provision of early maternal breast milk to preterm infants. Including parent perspectives, approaches to quality improvement work at Trust and Network levels with shared experiences and ideas to inspire and drive change.

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What improvement opportunities are there in your area? And ‘Early Breast Milk for Pre-Term Babies' - webinar details

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Introducing the new team and the BSOT's webinars sessions

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Maternity Early Warning Score - Podcast 1 by NHS England

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The NHS England National Patient Safety Team has produced two podcasts to provide an overview of the background and development of the new National Maternity Early Warning Score (MEWS) tool.This is the first of two podcasts from the NHS England National Patient Safety Team. In this first podcast, Professor Marian Knight, University of Oxford; Professor Peter Watkinson, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and Tony Kelly, National Clinical Advisor, Maternity & Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme NHS England, discuss the development of a new national Maternity Early Warning Score (MEWS) tool.

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Maternity Early Warning Score - Podcast 2 by NHS England

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The NHS England National Patient Safety Team has produced two podcasts to provide an overview of the background and development of the new National Maternity Early Warning Score (MEWS) tool.This is the second of two podcasts from the NHS England National Patient Safety Team. In this second podcast, Tony Kelly, National Clinical Advisor Maternity & Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme (MatNeoSIP) NHS England; Hannah Rutter, Senior Improvement Manager, MatNeoSIP NHS England; Louise Page Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, West Middlesex University Hospital and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Anita Banerjee, Consultant Obstetric Physician, Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust; and Katherine Edwards, Director of Patient Safety and Clinical Improvement, Oxford Academic Health Science Network; discuss the the benefits of implementing the new national MEWS tool.

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National Maternity Early Warning Score : Podcast 3 by NHS England

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The NHS England National Patient Safety Team has produced a third podcast to provide an overview of the feedback from the testing phases for the national Maternity Early Warning Score (MEWS) tool. This is the third of three podcasts from the NHS England National Patient Safety Team. In this podcast, Tony Kelly, National Clinical Advisor Maternity & Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme (MatNeoSIP) NHS England; Hannah Rutter, Senior Improvement Manager, MatNeoSIP NHS England; Louise Page Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, West Middlesex University Hospital and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Anita Banerjee, Consultant Obstetric Physician, Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust; and Rebecca Wilson-Crellin, Clinical Lead, Culture and Leadership in the Maternity Transformation Programme discuss the feedback received during testing and the importance of reducing unwarranted variation by implementing the new national MEWS tool.

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Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Clinical Network

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Y&H MEaCC Project - Overview by the Y&H MEaCC Team (November 2021)

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Each Baby Counts Learn and Support - Escalation Toolkit Launch

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Each Baby Counts Learn and Support - Escalation Toolkit Launch

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Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria

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Webinar | Each Baby Counts + Learn and Support Y&HNENC Escalation Toolkit Launch

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Each Baby Counts Learn and Support. Next Steps - Session 1.

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Each Baby Counts Learn and Support. Next Steps - Session 1.

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Webinar | Each Baby Counts + Learn and Support: Next Steps - Session 1

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Each baby counts flyer Next Steps Session 2 (3)

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PSIRF Learning community Flyer April 23 V1 (1)

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PIER - A Pathway for deterioration - Hannah Rutter

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PIER - A Pathway for deterioration - Hannah Rutter

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Matneosip CDDFT Escalation Journey Julie

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EBC Escalation Toolkit - Theresa Fitzpatrick

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EBC Escalation Toolkit - Theresa Fitzpatrick

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The NEWTT2 tool has been launched, click here to read more about it.

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The NEWTT2 tool has been launched, click here to read more about it.

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British Association of Perinatal Medicine

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What is NEWTT 2?

This framework for practice describes at-risk groups and provides an updated Newborn Early Warning Trigger and Track (NEWTT2) chart aligning to current recommendations for newborn care and acknowledging feedback from healthcare professionals.

The chart encompasses parental concern to acknowledge the importance of the opinion of the family in addition to the wider multi-disciplinary team. The inclusion of parental concern supports concerns highlighted and recommendations made in recent national maternity investigations.

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This framework for practice describes at-risk groups and provides an updated Newborn Early Warning Trigger and Track (NEWTT2) chart aligning to current recommendations for newborn care and acknowledging feedback from healthcare professionals. The chart encompasses parental concern to acknowledge the importance of the opinion of the family in addition to the wider multi-disciplinary team.

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PSIRF Learning community Flyer Feb 23 V1

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PSIRF Learning community Flyer Feb 23 (1)

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Wow! Look at that improvement! Well done to all the staff working in Maternity & Neonatal care in Yorkshire & The Humber.

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MatNeoSIP - Summary of optimisation data 2022

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Here's the link to watch the Bolton Early Breast Milk Quality Improvement Presentation

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Here's the link to watch the Bolton Early Breast Milk Quality Improvement Presentation

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National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes

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Watch Maria's presentation about Calderdale's fantastic work on deferred cord clamping.

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A4 Magnesium Sulphate (No Crops) HIGH-RES

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A4 Deferred Cord Clamping (No Crops) HIGH-RES

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A4 Antenatal Steroids (No Crops) HIGH-RES

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Preterm Optimisation Measurement and Data Information (MatNeoSIP) - Updated

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Preterm Optimisation Measurement and Data Information (MatNeoSIP) - Updated

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Preterm measurement and data information  (1)

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Find out about the different ways #AHSNs are working to understand and address inequalities in maternity care from our latest patient safety blog by Cheryl Crocker, AHSN Network Patient Safety Director.

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Find out about the different ways #AHSNs are working to understand and address inequalities in maternity care from our latest patient safety blog by Cheryl Crocker, AHSN Network Patient Safety Director.

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It is an unacceptable fact that black and Asian women and people who give birth are more likely than those who are white to die during birth or the following year.

More specifically, black women are four times more likely to die during pregnancy or postnatally than white women. In comparison, Asian women are twice as likely to die as white women during their pregnancy or within the first year after giving birth.

These insights from the MBRRACE-UK 2021 report are driving a new focus across Academic Health Science Networks on improving birth outcomes for ethnic minority populations to lower risks and ensure safer, equitable care for everyone.

Although more research is needed to better understand the cause of the poorer outcomes for black and Asian women and birthing people, and their babies, a Public Health England report identifies the following common issues:

Low socio-economic status or social support

Lack of proficiency in English

Multiple vulnerabilities such as female genital mutilation or recent migrant status

Policy of charging undocumented migrants for maternity care

A 'one size fits all' approach to maternity care which does not consider differences in pregnant women's abilities to understand or access care, or serve the most vulnerable appropriately, can result in inequalities in healthcare provision, contributing to structural racism

Cultural barriers combined with insufficient training of healthcare professionals in cultural sensitivity and knowledge

The NHS Long Term Plan aims to achieve 50% reductions in stillbirth, maternal mortality, neonatal mortality and serious brain injury by 2025. In this blog, we look at six key types of work that AHSNs are involved in, which are supporting this goal and driving safety improvements for mothers, birthing people, and their families.

Peer support and training to support quality improvement in maternity care

Inspired by a shared vision that one day black mothers will no longer be disproportionately at risk during their pregnancy and the first year after giving birth, the West of England AHSN is working with partners Representation Matters and BCohCo on a project called Black Maternity Matters.

Maternity staff from across the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Local Maternity System will form a supportive, collaborative practice, providing a psychologically safe space to explore the issues facing black mothers and birthing people and develop practical changes to offer more equitable maternity services and care.

Having started in May 2022, 15 midwives are participating in an innovative six-month education and training programme focusing on cultural competency and diversity fluency.

Co-producing maternity services to ensure a variety of voices are heard and can influence services

Whose Shoes?

Midwife and Darzi Fellow, Rosie Murphy, has been leading some work on perinatal inequalities in Croydon, focusing on black and minority ethnic families' accessibility to and engagement with the health system. She has been supported by the Health Innovation Network in South London.

A ' Whose Shoes? ' engagement event attended by around 40 healthcare professionals, parents and voluntary sector representatives has been held to share experiences and ideas for improving services.

The session has resulted in cultural competency training being provided to all maternity staff, increased access to translators, improvements to feedback mechanisms and a strategy to engage dads. The group plans to co-design the ongoing HEARD (Health Equity and Racial Disparity) campaign to take a collaborative approach to designing the continuing strategy and impact evaluation.

Black and Asian Maternity Advisory Group

Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Local Maternity System established their Black and Asian Maternity Advisory Group in 2021 to better understand the reasons black and Asian women and have worse outcomes than those who are white and explore solutions together.

Twelve maternity standards of care have been developed in addition to the existing standards that maternity services use. These will become integral to providing care for women and birthing people, their families, and staff.

Smoke-Free Babies

Smoking in pregnancy is the leading modifiable risk factor for a range of poor clinical outcomes. Women from the most deprived communities are 12 times more likely to smoke during pregnancy than those from more affluent areas.

The National Maternity Safety Improvement Programme (MatNeoSIP) aims to contribute to increasing the number of smoke-free pregnancies to 94% or more by March 2023.

West Midlands AHSN is supporting this aim by collaborating with National Maternity Voices on a project called 'Smoke-Free Babies' to work with women, pregnant people and families that are disadvantaged by inequalities such as socio-economic deprivation and ethnicity. This group forms the majority of those who smoke through pregnancy. The project aims to understand their experiences and explore the barriers that prevent them from stopping smoking.

Developing a greater understanding of Vitamin-D deficiency

Health Innovation Manchester are working to increase knowledge around Vitamin-D deficiency among populations most at risk.

Vitamin-D deficiency during pregnancy has been shown to create a higher risk of poor outcomes including potentially life-threatening conditions for mothers and babies e.g., pre-eclampsia, low birth weight and pre-term birth, all significant risk factors for infant mortality.

In the UK, estimates indicate that Vitamin-D deficiency is common in pregnant women (up to 50%) and their breastfed infants (up to 56%). Vitamin-D deficiency has been reported in 64 % of pregnant Middle Eastern women, 58% of pregnant black women and 47% of pregnant Asian women, compared to only 13 % of Caucasian pregnant women.

There is a lack of research about the factors that may impact Vitamin-D supplementation uptake for those who are pregnant. Most studies on Vitamin-D deficiency and supplementation are clinically focused on measuring Vitamin-D deficiency and its effects, rather than attempting to understand the root cause. These include barriers to effective supplementation, particularly in populations most at risk, and what might help them manage or prevent their increased risk. This Health Innovation Manchester study aims to fill this gap.

Creating a safety-focused culture in maternity units

Within the Eastern AHSN region, the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme is managing the Regional Equality Diversity and Inclusion workforce working group, focusing on improving leadership to create a safe culture in maternity units and developing a tailored programme to increase ethnic minority representation at staff band 7 levels and above.

This is underpinned by the NHS People Plan which states there is "strong evidence that where an NHS workforce is representative of the community that it serves, patient care and the overall patient experience is more personalised and improves" and Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) data showing that people from ethnic minorities are more likely to be nurses, midwives and health visitors compared to their representation in the population, but are under-represented in senior roles.

Additionally, the 'Optimisation: The Right Place of Birth' exception reporting forms now include key demographics that help identify the most vulnerable people.

Providing earlier access to midwifery care

West Midlands AHSN is working to support expectant parents from minority ethnic backgrounds with limited English language skills and living in low-income households to access early midwifery care.

Expectant parents will , including information about vaccinations and vitamin supplementation, at the earliest opportunity. An enhanced self-referral will also be offered to vulnerable families at the earliest stage of pregnancy to support early intervention and planning. The aim is to give an improved experience in addition to improving maternal and perinatal outcomes.

This innovative project and its learning will be shared across Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems as an example of providing equitable access and care to the most vulnerable families.

The future

With dedicated projects working to understand and address the inequalities faced by black and Asian mothers and birthing people, the AHSN Network, together with partner organisations and people from black and Asian backgrounds, are working towards safer and more equitable care for today and the future.

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6 ways AHSNs are supporting safer maternity care for black and Asian families

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It is an unacceptable fact that black and Asian women and people who give birth are more likely than those who are white to die during birth or the following year. More specifically, black women are four times more likely to die during pregnancy or postnatally than white women.

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British Association of Perinatal Medicine

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The objective of this toolkit is to support the optimisation of maternal breast milk (MBM) supply and breastfeeding for preterm babies from before birth to discharge from the neonatal unit.

The toolkit focuses on 5 core elements that support the optimisation of early MBM:

Parents as equal partners in their baby's care: Parents are empowered to take part in all elements of their baby's care, facilitating strong close and loving attachments.

Antenatal education: Educating families about the value of MBM in prematurity, importance and process of early expressing.

Initiation of expressing soon after birth (aim within 2 hours): With easy access to support, training and equipment.

Early Colostrum (ideally within 6 hours of birth and always within 24 hours): MBM to be the first enteral feed given to baby.

Early and regular parental physical contact with their baby: Delivery room contact, skin-to-skin early and often

The toolkit will introduce some basic QI tools and methods that are quick to learn and easy to apply. It does not intend to replicate any existing local or national QI activity undertaken in the area of focus but to complement these endeavours with a practical step-by-step guide.

Full Toolkit (PDF) Toolkit Overview (PDF)
Context, Objectives & Evidence (PDF)
Evidence Infographic (PDF)
Your improvement journey (PDF)
Tools & Resources (PDF) Evidence Summary Webinar (video)
If you have any feedback about this publication please do contact us.

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The objective of this toolkit is to support the optimisation of maternal breast milk (MBM) supply and breastfeeding for preterm babies from before birth to discharge from the neonatal unit.

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The aim of Each Baby Counts + Learn & Support (EBC L&S) was to improve maternity care by focusing on the working practices of the multidisciplinary maternity team.

Over the course of 3 years, multi-professional teams in 16 units around the country worked together to develop, test, and refine interventions that can be adopted in every unit around the country to improve clinical escalation.

This toolkit contains everything you need to understand the background to the programme and implement these solutions.

Each Baby Counts + Learn & Support evolved from recommendations made by our original Each Baby Counts programme.

We want the UK to become known as the safest place in the world to give birth.

Recurrent reports have indicated that improved culture in maternity will contribute towards better care and outcomes for women and babies.

Around 700,000 babies are born in the UK every year. The vast majority are born safely, but more than 1,000 will die or suffer a brain injury during or shortly after term labour. Many of these cases are preventable, and failures in clinical escalation have been highlighted in multiple reports.

This report recommended a systematic approach to address human factors in order to improve outcomes, and Each Baby Counts Learn and Support set out to do this.

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Each Baby Counts: Learn & Support | RCOG

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The aim of Each Baby Counts + Learn & Support (EBC L&S) was to improve maternity care by focusing on the working practices of the multidisciplinary maternity team. Over the course of 3 years, multi-professional teams in 16 units around the country worked together to develop, test, and refine interventions that can be adopted in every unit around the country to improve clinical escalation.

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DCC - Amitava Sur (DCC Webinar - May 2022)

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DCC - Amitava Sur (DCC Webinar - May 2022)

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MEaCC (Deterioration Webinar - May 2022)

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MEaCC (Deterioration Webinar - May 2022)

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Each Baby Counts (Deterioration Webinar - May 2022)

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Each Baby Counts (Deterioration Webinar - May 2022)

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Hannah's (MatNeoSIP) (Deterioration Webinar - May 2022)

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Hannah's (MatNeoSIP) (Deterioration Webinar - May 2022)

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Welcome to the Improvement Academy We are a team of improvement scientists, patient safety experts and clinicians who are committed to working with frontline services, patients and the public to deliver real and lasting change. We adopt a theory-based approach to improvement that's practical, tried and tested.

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A programme to support improvement in the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal units across England - formerly known as the Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative.

Contents

All Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme activities are currently being reviewed to support the national COVID-19 response. The key objective is to provide maximum support to frontline colleagues in the NHS and the community. Non-urgent work (unrelated to COVID-19) is on hold until further notice. Please see further details on the National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes page.

Aims of the programme

The Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme (MatNeoSIP), was renamed following the launch of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy in July 2019. It was previously known as the Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative.

MatNeoSIP is led by the National Patient Safety team and covers all maternity and neonatal services across England. It continues to be supported by 15 regionally-based Patient Safety Collaboratives.

The programme aims to:

improve the safety and outcomes of maternal and neonatal care by reducing unwarranted variation and provide a high quality healthcare experience for all women, babies and families across maternity and neonatal care settings in England

contribute to the national ambition, set out in Better Births of reducing the rates of maternal and neonatal deaths, stillbirths, and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth by 50% by 2025.

Our support offer

We support frontline staff to create the conditions for continuous improvement, a safety culture and a national maternal and neonatal learning system.

Our support offer is spilt into three annual waves, 44 trusts took part in wave 1 and now in the second year of the programme, we are working with 43 trusts across England. Nominated improvement leads from each of these trusts will build their knowledge of improvement theory by attending nine days of learning sessions during the wave.

The leads will then share their learning with trusts in waves 2 and 3, as we work with them during the second and third years of the programme. Through our support they'll apply these new ideas and approaches to improve clinical practices, ensure a reliable quality of care and measure improvement and impact.

We visit and support each trust to build local capacity in quality improvement and provide structured support to local teams to assess their assess services and develop plans that lead to measurable improvement.

We intensively coach each trust to run one or more quality improvement projects on one of the five areas of clinical excellence to improve.

These driver diagrams and change packages are a resource that maternal and neonatal healthcare staff can use as part of a systematic improvement approach to improve services for women and babies. The change packages relate to the five clinical priorities outlined in the national driver diagram and set out change ideas, concepts and interventions that can be tested to accomplish the stated project aim.

These five drivers are underpinned by a strong focus on safety culture, systems and processes, engaging with staff, women and families, and learning from both error and excellence.

Improving the proportion of smoke-free pregnancy

Optimisation and stabilisation of the very preterm infant

Detection and management of diabetes in pregnancy

Detection and management of neonatal hypoglycaemia

Early recognition and management of deterioration of mother or baby

Local learning system (LLS) forum

The local learning systems are 'improvement forums' where individuals, across different professions, and from different organisations, come together to share and learn about improvement approaches and outcomes.

The idea is to create learning systems to encourage the sharing and adoption of good practice that will enable maternity and neonatal systems to flourish. Some improvement work, such as smoking cessation, will also benefit from a system level approach in order to deliver a sustainable solution.

To find out more about joining your local learning system please email patientsafety.enquiries@nhs.net.

Background to our work

The programme (then known as the Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative) was announced by the Department of Health in October 2016 and supports the aims of our Better births maternity review and the maternity transformation programme .

The maternity transformation programme has nine workstreams, covering a range of topics. The Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme falls under Workstream 2: Promoting good practice for safer care.

Contact us

If you would like further information, have any questions about the Maternal and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme, or to get in touch with your local learning system, please email patientsafety.enquiries@nhs.net.

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Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme

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A programme to support improvement in the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal units across England - formerly known as the Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative. All Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme activities are currently being reviewed to support the national COVID-19 response.

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NHS Futures - Y&H MatNeoSIP workspace here

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NHS Futures - Y&H MatNeoSIP workspace here

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We are a collaboration platform empowering everyone working in health and social care to safely connect, share and learn across boundaries. Be part of a FutureNHS.