£25k injection for midwife training
HALTON Midwifery Service has received £25,000 from a Health Education England’s (HEE) £8m training fund.
The programme will fund inhouse training to boost the safety, skills and expertise of midwives.
Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Bridgewater), which runs the service, was one of 136 NHS trusts to receive cash under the scheme.
The scheme will include sharing good practice with other NHS organisations.
Training is due to be completed by March 2018 and HEE will commission an independent evaluation of how the trusts taking part including Bridgewater have improved.
A Bridgewater spokeswoman said the HEE funding is intended to support NHS’s ambition to make maternity services among the safest in the world and reduce the number of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth by 20 per cent by 2020 and by 50 per cent by 2030.
Corina Casey-Hardman, Bridgewater’s head of midwifery, said: “Our service is delighted to receive this package of funding.
“All our staff are committed to delivering high quality care to all the mothers and babies we care for in Runcorn and Widnes.
“As a trust, we already provide an excellent standard of training for our staff but this funding will allow us to deliver even more advanced and specialist training so our midwives can recognise any deviations in foetal growth.
“The training will also enable three of our midwives to be trained to provide scans in the community.
“As part of the programme we will also be sharing good practice, safety and learning with the other NHS trusts involved, programme partners and directly with the Health Education England.” ●
Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, HEE’s director of nursing, said: “Trusts were invited to apply for funding in 2016 and the response from service providers and partners in applying to make maternity services safer through education and training has been excellent, as well as the response from training providers to meet demand for course places.”