15 Steps to quality care in Cornwall’s community maternity services details findings from Kernow MNVP’s visits in November 2024 to three community maternity settings: Midwifery Led Units (MLUs) at Birthing Centres in Helston (West Cornwall) and Penrice (St Austell/central Cornwall), and the community clinic at Mount Wise Health Centre in Newquay.
During the visits, a group of service users joined Kernow MNVP staff and local midwives and used the NHS England 15 Steps toolkit to observe first impressions of the care environment and interactions with staff. They identified strengths and areas for improvement across five key themes:
- Welcoming and informative
- Safe and clean
- Friendly and personal
- Organised and calm
- Accessible and inclusive.
Overall, the report highlights the value of delivering quality maternity care in community settings and shines a spotlight on Penrice MLU in St Austell as an example of best practice. Common areas for development are identified across the sites, mainly around signage, parking, information and communication, and recommendations are made for improvement in each setting.
Announcing the report, Nicki Burnett, Senior Lead, Kernow MNVP, said: “Kernow MNVP is committed to ensuring that service user voices are at the heart of improvements in maternity and neonatal care. We want to thank everyone who joined us for the 15 Steps visits and contributed so constructively – your personal stories, insights, and recommendations are at the heart of this report.
“Community birth settings have always been an important and integral part of delivering maternity care in Cornwall, not least because of our many dispersed and rural communities. It is important that all families are aware of their maternity care options so that they can make informed choices and create personalised care and support plans that meet their needs.
“Overall, these visits felt like a celebration of our community maternity spaces, with Penrice Birthing Centre clearly demonstrating how to get things right for local families. Service users could see and feel the time, consideration and dedication that has gone into making sure service users have a great maternity experience.
“It’s important that all our maternity care spaces and facilities, whether in hospitals or community settings, contribute to quality care experiences that are safe, inclusive and supportive for all families; the 15 Steps visits enable us to guide improvements where they are needed.”
Kernow MNVP has shared their report with the Local Maternity and Neonatal System and the Royal Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust to guide plans for improving delivery of maternity care across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Kernow MNVP will monitor progress made in these community settings and carry out 15 Steps visits to other settings during 2025.
Susan Bracefield, Chief Nursing Officer, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB), welcomed the report: “The local maternity and neonatal system is incredibly grateful to the Kernow MNVP team for producing this report. The feedback and intelligence contained within the document is vital to supporting the system to continue to develop and deliver safe, personalised services in a meaningful way. We are proud to work so closely with Kernow MNVP and to have the voice of those that use our services embedded within our work.”
More information
Read the full report or share your feedback about maternity or neonatal care in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.