The panel to review the final draft of the Maternity Services Strategy 2014-2019.

Gwen Pearson, NEW Devon CCG provided the panel with an overview of the draft Commissioning Strategy for Maternity Services 2014-2019.  It was reported that –

(a)           this was a high level commissioning strategy and were working together with NEW Devon CCG, South Devon and Torbay CCG and Kernow CCG working on one document to avoid some of the boundary issues;

(b)          there was high level commitment for this strategy from the 3 CCGs.  Task and Finish groups were set up and representatives from the 3 CCGs which included heads of midwifery had discussions around having a robust needs assessment.  In pulling the strategy together they wanted to engage with stakeholders and asked the following questions -

·         what worked well;

·         want didn’t work well;

·         ideas or suggestions for the future.

            (c)        they had also visited a number of children’s centres and met with Healthwatch and undertook some surveys.  They realised the importance of getting people involved right from the beginning and the need to look at the hard to reach groups;

            (d)        key to this strategy was the development of the Maternity Liaison Committee and looked at how this committee operates and how they remained consistently involved with maternity services;

            (e)        they would be undertaking intensive work within the western locality with key stakeholders in the city;

            (f)         education for parenthood was done quite well in Plymouth and if we get this right would be very beneficial for us;

            (g)        each of the CCGs collated data differently.  This was a key piece of work to look at how data is collected in the future and for all midwifery units to collect data in the same way;

(h)        the next steps for the development of the strategy –

·         wider stakeholder engagement;

·         draft strategy completed and development action plan by August / September 2014;

·         ratification by the CCG Board;

·         preparing implementation plan / stocktake;

·         maternity units to benchmark.

In response to questions raised, it was reported that -

(i)         they were working closely with public health representatives from each of the CCG areas looking at the commissioning intentions and intend to work closely with public health looking at inequalities;

            (j)         they had a clear communication plan and would share the plan with this panel;

            (k)        the data they had collated indicated that in Plymouth there were a significant number of social deprivations which would be looked at in more detail and to ascertain where they needed to target resources;

            (l)         there were cultural changes that needed to be made and one of the things identified was the need to think about maternity care in a broader sense and start to address some of the issues;

(m)         they had received a number of comments from GPs and would be undertaking further work with GPs.  They had the appropriate amount of midwives on the workforce and parents felt a great affection for their midwives.  More work would be undertaken to address the complex issues and would work on these issues with the midwives, GPs and mothers;

(n)          they were looking to review the role of the Maternity Liaison Committee and looking to develop the website and publish agendas and minutes.

Agreed that –

1.         Caring Plymouth note the draft Commissioning Strategy for Maternity Services 2014-2019;

2.         NEW Devon CCG consider the inclusion of information as out forward by the Caring Plymouth panel within the strategy;

3.         a sub-regional scrutiny with Devon, Cornwall and Torbay is formed to assist in the development of the strategy.