If during your maternity or neonatal care in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent you have experienced a significant health complication or bereavement (also described as an adverse outcome) you can go to a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate (MNISA) for help.

The Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent can provide support to any family who has received maternity or neonatal care at:-

• The Royal Stoke University Hospital/County Hospital, Stafford (University Hospitals of North Midlands)
• Queen’s Hospital, Burton/Samuel Johnson Community Hospital, Lichfield (University Hospitals of Derby & Burton)
• New Cross Hospital/Cannock Chase Hospital (Royal Wolverhampton Trust)

Recent reports and inquiries into maternity and neonatal care identify a range of adverse outcomes that can occur during care. During the initial pilot phase, the MNISA can support you if you have experienced any of the following adverse outcomes:

• Your baby has been stillborn (after 24 weeks of your pregnancy).

• Your baby has died at or in the first 28days after their birth.
• The baby’s mother has died within one year of pregnancy/childbirth (and of a related cause).

• You had an unexpected or unplanned hysterectomy (removal of your womb) at/or within 6 weeks of pregnancy or childbirth.
• You had an unexpected admission to the critical or intensive care unit as a result of a complication associated with pregnancy/childbirth.
• Your baby had, has or may have a brain injury

It is important to recognise that there may be other adverse outcomes that are equally important and impactful to you, that have not been included in the project criteria. Whilst unfortunately your Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate will not be able to accept a formal referral for an adverse outcome outside of this criteria, she will be able to signpost you to alternative help. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

If you have experienced any of these outcomes, your advocate is here for you and your family and can:

• help and support you and your family to be listened to and heard by your maternity and neonatal care providers.
• attend meetings/inquests with you.
• support you through the maternity and neonatal healthcare system to help you to understand what happened to you/your baby.
• support you through investigation and complaints processes.

The service is available for anyone facing a significant health complication or bereavement. You do not need to be sure if there were mistakes in your (or your baby’s) care to ask for support.

A Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate may not be best placed to help you if:

• the adverse outcome you have faced is outside of the criteria
• all your avenues of investigation or complaint have been concluded
• your concerns are solely about your birth choices rather than from an adverse outcome
• you have any general queries related to maternity and neonatal services.

The Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) can listen to you and help to share your feedback in this circumstance. 

The Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate for the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent area is Melanie. Melanie is a registered children's nurse, who has been working in neonatal care since 1995. She has extensive clinical, managerial and education experience and has worked in a variety of senior roles in units throughout London and the South of England. Melanie has worked as a Matron and a bereavement lead in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Melanie has extensive experience caring and advocating for families facing pregnancy loss, families needing to make critical care decisions for their baby and bereaved families. Melanie has a sound knowledge of NHS and external processes including complaints management, incident management, end-of-life and Coroner processes. 

Melanie said “Thankfully, mistakes and poor outcomes are rare in maternity and neonatal care, but when they do happen they can be devastating for individuals and families. Families can find themselves thrust into an unknown world, facing complex investigation and complaints processes and needing to make important decisions when they feel at their most lost and vulnerable. It is a real privilege to become the Maternity and Neonatal independent Senior Advocate for Staffordshire and Stoke-on Trent to be there to support you, your loved one or someone that you are caring for to make this process a little easier”.

Contacting or using a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate is free. There is no charge for any support given and interpreters can be made available if you need one. 

If you would like to make a referral for yourself, your wife/husband/partner or family member, you can complete this self-referral form. 

Alternatively, you can ask a professional (such as a nurse/midwife/health visitor/ social worker or doctor) or a support person (such as a counsellor/charity/librarian/religious leader) to fill this in for you using this form. 

Melanie can also be contacted by telephone at 07821 808 015 or via email at ssot.mnisa@staffsstoke.icb.nhs.uk. (Please be aware that for reasons of confidentiality, these are only manned by your Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate and so there may be a delay in returning your enquiry out of hours or during planned and unplanned leave).

You don’t have to use a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate if you do not want to, and you can stop contact at any time without giving a reason.

Your Maternity and Neonatal Independent Advocate will be in contact with you as soon as possible, but within 15 working days of receiving your referral.

Your local Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate: -

• is employed by the Integrated Care Board (ICB). The ICB is an NHS organisation responsible for planning health services for the local population.
• Is independent and is not an employee of any of the hospitals or other health providers responsible for your maternity/neonatal care.
• does not live and has never worked in the local area.

Everything that you say will remain confidential and your advocate will not share anything unless you ask or agree for this to happen. The only exception to this is if you shared something that would pose a safeguarding risk to you, a member of your family or another member of the public. If this were to happen, this would be shared with you (if possible) and disclosed to the minimum number of people. 

A copy of the privacy notice and information about how your data is stored, will be provided for you when signing consent to receive support from a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate.

You can change your mind at any time and stop engaging with your Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate without giving a reason.

As this is a pilot scheme, there are currently no alternate Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocates if you do not feel that your Advocate is the right person for you.

If you wish to log a complaint or raise a complaint about your Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate then you can contact our ICB patient services team. You can contact us via any of the methods below and we will be happy to help.

Freephone: 0808 196 8861

Email: PatientServices@staffsstoke.icb.nhs.uk

Post: New Beacon Building, Stafford Education and Enterprise Park, Weston Road, Stafford, ST18 OBF

Any information you provide will be treated in strict confidence. We may need to collect personal information from you so that we can provide the best possible service. Please be assured that your personal details will not be shared with anyone else without your consent.

A range of resources and support is available ofr women/birthing people, parents and extended families who have experienced a health complication, trauma or beareavement in maternity or neonatal care. 

Pregnancy care: 

• National Childbirth Trust 
• Group B Strep Support 
• Local resources in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent

Neonatal Care: 

• BLISS - the premature baby charity
• DadPad
• PEEPS
• Twins Trust 
• Ickle Pickles Charity
• The Lullaby Trust
• A Fathers Journey

Support for bereaved families:

• SANDS
• A child of mine 
• Remember my baby 
• 4Louis
• Tommy's Charity 
• Petals
• The Lily Mae Foundation 

Supporting childen through beareavement: 

• Winston's Wish
• Grief Encounter

Support for families who have experience birth trauma's: 

• Birth Trauma Association
• Campaign for Safer Births 

Mental Health Support 

• Mental Health Perinatal Support 
• Andy's Man Club Stafford
• The Lotus Service
• Parent and Baby Service 
• Just Family
• Mind - Postnatal depression and perinatal mental health
• PaNDAS
• Giving Hope project