‘Maternity services at Harrogate NHS foundation trust sign RCMs Caring for You Charter’
By RCM on 25 October 2016 Maternity Services Caring For You campaign Caring For You Charter
Harrogate and District Foundation Trust have become the latest trust with Maternity servicer in the North of England to sign The Royal College of Midwives (RCM’s) Caring for You Charter.
The Charter is one of the cornerstones of the RCMs Caring for You campaign. The Caring for You Campaign aims to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of midwives so they are able to continue providing the highest levels of maternity care for women and their families.
Improve the support available for midwives and their maternity colleagues. The trust signed the RCM Caring for You Charter this week.
Launched in June, the campaign is aiming to get NHS organisations across the UK to sign up to the Caring for You Charter.
When signing the charter, organisations are committing to five key principles:
1 .Work in partnership with the RCM Health and Safety Representative to develop and implement an action plan about health, safety and wellbeing issues that are important to the maternity workforce and maternity service users.
2. Ensure that midwives and maternity support workers have access to a variety of shift patterns and flexible working and promote a positive workplace culture around working time including taking breaks.
3. Foster a positive working environment for all by signing up to the RCM/RCOG statement of commitment calling for zero tolerance policy on undermining and bullying behaviours.
4. Enable midwives and maternity support workers to access occupational health and other organisational policies for their mental and physical health, safety and wellbeing.
5. Nurture a compassionate and supportive workplace that cares for midwives and maternity support workers so that they can care for women and their families.
Commenting Sara Keogh, Head of Midwifery at Harrogate and District Foundation Trust said; I was delighted to sign the Caring for You Charter with our workplace representative Jessica Clarke, at RCMs annual conference last week.
We have already started some preliminary work prior to signing the charter, including a maternity staff stress survey to enable us to identify the key issues and stresses affecting staff in our unit.”
“Next steps include Jessica asking members for their opinions and ideas as to how we can improve working conditions and reduce stress levels, and for us to work together to create a realistic and achievable action plan. We plan to repeat the stress survey once we have implemented any actions or interventions, and are optimistic that we will see an improvement in results and most importantly, a happier midwifery workforce.”
Commenting RCMs Regional Officer for the North of England Susanna Cafferty; says; “A recent survey of RCM members from across the UK conducted by the RCM revealed that they were really feeling burnt out and overworked, we know that this is happening due to the increase in demands being placed on them at work. The shortage of midwives particularly in England (3,500) means our members are working harder than ever before and without adequate breaks, all this can have a significant effect on their health. It’s fantastic news that the maternity services at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust have committed to the Caring for You Charter and I look forward to working with then to improve the health and wellbeing of all the maternity staff at the trust.
The RCMs Learning Representative Jessica Lowe says; “It is great that Harrogate have signed up to the campaign as it's so important for the staff to feel listened to and supported at a stressful time.
We must look after our maternity staff to enable them to give excellent care and have good job satisfaction. As the RCM learning rep I am facilitating a stress and wellbeing study day to help improve this.”
For a picture of the Charter signing contact the RCM Press Office on 020 7312 3456.
Ends
Notes to editors
The RCM is the only trade union and professional association dedicated to serving midwifery and the whole midwifery team. We provide workplace advice and support, professional and clinical guidance and information, and learning opportunities with our broad range of events, conferences and online resources. For more information visit the RCM website at https://www.rcm.org.uk/.