Quality surveillance and governance

There have been several reports published over the last decade that have focused on the importance of truly listening to service users, and talked about the need for more transparency, honesty and reflective learning to happen when things go wrong in maternity and neonatal services.

Ockenden Report

Since December 2020, a large focus of Dorset MNVP’s work in Dorset has been the Ockenden Review and the two subsequent reports. These reports followed an independent review of maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, leading to several national actions to improve maternity services and make them safer.

Many of the recommendations put MNVP and service user representation at the heart of quality surveillance and safety. By embedding the service user voice within quality surveillance work locally, these recommendations can be implemented and Dorset MNVP can ensure the feedback from families is truly influential in making changes to improve care.

Working locally

Dorset MNVP continues to develop and embed their involvement in quality surveillance and governance across Dorset’s Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) to support the system to continue to develop and ensure a transparent safety culture.

Dorset MNVP is now involved in more regular meetings and forums where they share the insight and intelligence gathered through their engagement work and provide critical friendship and challenge through a service user lens; They are part of visits to services for local NHS Trusts in Dorset, to assess progress against the actions needed; and they are involved in more coproduction work.