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Maternity services at Belfast’s Royal Jubilee Hospital sign RCM Caring for You Charter

By RCM on 20 April 2017 Caring For You Charter

Maternity services at the Belfast’s Royal Jubilee Hospital (Health and Social Care Trust) have become the latest with trust with maternity services in Northern Ireland to commit to The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Caring for You campaign.

The campaign which was launched last year aims to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs) across the UK.

The ethos being that when maternity staff is healthy, well rested and take adequate breaks they can provide the highest level of maternity care for women and their families.

Organisations commit to the Caring For You campaign by signing a Charter and upon signing they commit to five key values;

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Enable midwives and maternity support workers to access occupational health and other organisational policies for their mental and physical health, safety and wellbeing.
  • Nurture a compassionate and supportive workplace that cares for midwives and maternity support workers so that they can care for women and their families.

Breedagh Hughes, the RCM’s Director for Northern Ireland said; “I am delighted that the maternity services at Belfast’s Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital have signed up to  RCM’s Caring for You campaign, they have a great team of midwives and maternity support workers  at the hospital who work really hard to deliver the best care to women and their babies in Belfast This is a very positive move and I welcome the Head of Midwifery and management commitment to staff and the people they care for.”

Brenda Kelly, Head of Midwifery and Neonatology  at the Trust, said: “Within Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, our ambition is to be a world leader in health and social care. We are committed to the improvement of the health and wellbeing of our employees. To achieve this, we passionately believe that we require a workforce that is healthy, motivated and where staff act as champions of their own wellbeing and that of their families. We believe that through the improvement of the general health and wellbeing of our employees we will be able to continue to improve the quality of care to all of our service users.

“The b Well & RCM Caring for You Campaign are an excellent resource for our staff to enable a safe and healthy working environment which will in turn lead to improved health outcomes for women and their families.”

To contact the RCM Press Office call 020 7312 3456, or email pressofficer@rcm.org.uk.

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/.

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