Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme
Supporting improvement in the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal units across the South West.

Overview
Building local knowledge and expertise with a regional programme of events for practitioners and champions.
Encouraging a culture of safety, continuous learning and improvement across the health and care system.
Offers quality improvement coaching, and connects maternal and neonatal staff via a Patient Safety Network.
Detailed Programme Information
Supporting improvement in the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal units across the South West
The Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme (MatNeoSIP) is led by the National Patient Safety Collaborative and supported by 15 regionally-based Patient Safety Collaboratives.
In the South West of England, MatNeoSIP is supported by the South West Patient Safety Collaborative (South West PSC), hosted by the South West AHSN. The South West PSC host a quarterly South West MatNeoSIP Patient Safety Network event, to collaborate with key stakeholders including local maternity and neonatal systems, maternity clinical networks and neonatal operational delivery networks to steer and oversee improvement delivery across the programme’s priorities.
To meet our aims, we are keen to network and share with teams and individuals, so please contact our Programme Managers Sally Hedge and Tracey Sargent.
Ambitions within the Maternity and Neonatal programme include:
- To support the spread and adoption of the preterm perinatal optimisation care pathway across England to 95% or more by March 2025.
- To support the development of a national pathway approach for the effective management of maternal and neonatal deterioration using the Prevent Identify Escalate Respond (PIER) framework across all settings by March 2024.
- To work with key stakeholders to support the development of a national maternal early warning score (MEWS) by March 2021, and spread to all providers by March 2024.
- To support the spread and adoption of the neonatal early warning ‘trigger and track’ score (NEWTT) to all maternity and neonatal services by March 2023.
There are currently two projects within the optimisation workstream of MatNeoSIP:
- PReCePT, reducing the risk of Cerebral Palsy in pre-term babies, and
- PERIPrem, improving outcomes in pre-term babies.
- Launched in April 2020, PERIPrem (Perinatal Excellence to Reduce Injury in Premature Birth) is a perinatal care bundle to improve the outcomes for premature babies across the West and South West regions. The bundle consists of a number of interventions that will demonstrate a significant impact on brain injury and mortality rates amongst babies born prematurely. PERIPrem is the vehicle under which our Mat Neo SIP optimisation workstream is delivered across the SW. One of the improvement elements focuses on optimisation of magnesium sulphate rates, building on the work of the PReCePT project.
Regional Perinatal Equity Network
Held quarterly, co-hosted with the West of England AHSN, and supported by the NHS England Regional Maternity Team and South West Office for Health Improvement & Disparities:
- Our joint ambition is for the network to serve as a community of practice, exploring the delivery of meaningful, actionable improvements to reduce inequity of outcomes for black, brown, and racially minoritised women and families within the perinatal system.
- Health inequalities are not restricted to race and ethnicity and this network will seek to understand the wider distribution of burden by socioeconomic markers of inequality and the complex interplay of multiple markers of inequity.
- We want to grow a vibrant and collaborative space to share learning and experiences, review emerging evidence and strengthen the impact of those working to reduce inequity in perinatal services.
Aims & Objectives
- To provide a space for collaboration, discussion, and sharing of learning related to reducing inequity for those working in perinatal care in the West and South West region.
- To demonstrate a regional commitment to addressing inequalities in maternity and neonatal systems.
- To facilitate a psychologically safe space to explore cultural competency and diversity fluency.
- To act as a community of practice for those implementing inequality QI within the maternity and neonatal systems.
Useful Links
- South West Neonatal Network
- NHS Local Maternity Services (LMS)
- National Maternity Voices
- SNUG Devon (Supporting Neonatal Users and Graduates)
- Wessex Academic Health Science Network
- West of England AHSN Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme
- NHS Patient Safety Strategy
- Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme
- British Association of Perinatal Medicine
- Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
- Royal College of Midwives
- The Healthcare Improvement Studies
- Tommy's
- Lullaby Trust
- ASH
- National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training
- The National Institute for Health Research
- National Maternity Services Dashboard
- National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training
- MAMA Academy
- The PERIPrem care bundle | West of England AHSN
- Applied Research Collaboration West