By Dr Matthew Sweeting, Executive Medical Director and Natalie Hammond, Interim Executive Chief Nurse
Working in maternity and neonatal services carries enormous responsibility. Every day, colleagues tirelessly support women, babies and families at some of the most important and sometimes most difficult moments of their lives. I know this work can be incredibly demanding, and it is important to recognise the skill, compassion and commitment local teams show day in, day out.
National reviews have highlighted both the progress made across maternity and neonatal services and the challenges that remain. They have also shown the consequences when concerns are not heard, staff feel unable to speak up, or organisational culture gets in the way of learning and how, when this happens, women and families can be let down.
Today marks the start of a national conversations that provides an opportunity for everyone working in maternity and neonatal services to share openly what is working well, what gets in the way of providing the care you want to provide, and what needs to change. This conversation is an important opportunity to better understand the experiences of staff and help strengthen a culture of safety, openness and continuous improvement across our services.
We encourage everyone working across our maternity and neonatal services in Essex to take part. The conversation is being supported independently, and individual colleagues will not be identifiable.
Your experiences and ideas will help inform national action, but importantly they will also provide our local hospital trusts with valuable frontline insight to help shape their own improvement plans.
Here in Essex, we are also preparing to launch our Perinatal Quality Review as part of our plans for 2026/27. The experiences of women and families, alongside the views of staff and evidence about the quality and performance of services, will be central to the review and the recommendations that follow.
The online conversation opens today, to find out more visit Your Voice Live