Our News

We are celebrating the vital contribution made by our fantastic Maternity support Workers (MSW), as part of Maternity Support Workers Day that is celebrated on Sunday 24 November. We are incredibly thankful for the hard work and support our MSW's provide to both their colleagues within the Maternity department, but also to our patients. 

The primary role of the Maternity Support Worker is to assist, support and work in collaboration with the midwife and the wider multidisciplinary team; in order to provide a safe and holistic approach to women and birthing-people centred care. For our MSW's, this role can now form the start of an individual's journey to becoming a midwife, following the introduction of a new development pathway. 

Supporting the development of our staff is a high priority and MSW's are vital members of the maternity team providing a wide range of care and support every day to the women and families we care for, and the whole maternity team. 

The Maternity support worker competency, education and career development framework was established nationally in order to provide a recognised pathway of progression within the maternity department setting. This framework has formed the foundations of the work that has taken place in our maternity department, here is what the team have done to implement the framework, and support staff along the way in their development, You can view the framework here. 

In order to comply with the new framework, all substantive maternity staff were supported to achieve their care certificate, 27 members of staff achieved this. A new skills passport was written to support staff to progress from band 2 Maternity Care Assistant to become a fully qualified band 3 Maternity Support Worker. This was a bespoke transition, different to the transition that was ongoing within nursing.

So that the department could align with the framework, and enable staff to progress, a consultation was held in June and new job descriptions were created so that staff, right across the department, were aware of the responsibilities of the new MCA and MSW roles. These new job descriptions went live in July 2024 and all staff were given the opportunity to progress to band 3 on completion of some educational requirements, attaining a level 2 in Maths and English and being enrolled onto a level 3 healthcare related course. Some staff are now progression MCA’s and are being supported to work towards their promotion to band 3.

With all of the support in place to develop staff, it was inevitable that some might leave to continue that progression, which is not all as bad as it may seem. Being part of that journey to develop talent is fantastic! In all 8 support staff have gone on to take the next step on their maternity journey, however 3 of them will be taking on our brand new supported midwifery apprenticeship, this new apprenticeship allows staff to gain the midwifery degree they want, whilst still learning ‘on the job’ in our maternity department. We are only the second Trust in our region to offer this.

The loss of some staff meant there were some support worker gaps, however a new innovative recruitment day lay out, that focused on the individual, their temperament and their problem solving skills has led to 12 new MSWs and 4 new MCAs starting with the Trust. This is a fantastic example of continual development of people and talent.

With all of this in place, the new framework up and running and staff eager to learn and develop, we are now able to offer school leavers who want to become a midwife a complete development pathway, all under one roof, with the support of our apprenticeship team and external links with Anglia Ruskin University.

We would like to say a huge well done to our Maternity team!