Maternity & Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate
| Posting date: | 25 April 2024 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £58,972.00 to £68,525.00 per year |
| Additional salary information: | £58972.00 - £68525.00 a year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 10 May 2024 |
| Location: | Telford, TF1 1LX |
| Company: | NHS Jobs |
| Job type: | Contract |
| Job reference: | D9942-24-0018 |
Summary
About the Role The Midwifery Independent Senior Advocate (ISA) helps parents to be, new parents and families to be listened to and heard by their Maternity and Neonatal care providers. ISAs can provide support to women and their families, navigating the healthcare system and providing advocacy when they have a concern about the care they are receiving. In particular, ISAs will be available to families attending follow up meetings with clinicians, where concerns about Maternity or Neonatal care are discussed, aiming to break down barriers to being listened to and heard. The ISA can support people navigate throughformal complaints processes where an adverse outcome has occurred. Key Job Specifics & Responsibilities - Provide leadership in ensuring the voice of the service user remains front and foremost in all referrals. Referrals - Work with LMNS colleagues to establish mechanisms to receive and record referrals from women and families where concerns have been expressed about their Maternity or Neonatal care. - Respond to referrals and be available to women and families, to join follow-up meetings with clinicians.- Build and understanding of the concerns expressed by women and families and reflect that understanding back to women and families to help them feel listened to. - Manage a number of complex cases simultaneously and taking decisions independently on substantial casework. To establish systems to record details of each case referred for support. - To work collaboratively with ISAs working in neighbouring areas to maximise availability to women and families. Navigation - To act as a trusted intermediary between women and families and clinicians and the Maternity & Neonatal Trust, aiming to break down barriers to being listened to and heard. - Help women and families navigate complexity, signposting to appropriate sources of advice and support both within and external to the NHS where necessary. - To work towards resolving concerns and brokering improvements early on in the pathway, set out for example in Personalised Care & Support Plans, so that care better meets a womans needs and there is less likely to be an ongoing poor experience. - To ensure that women and families are aware of their rights and options and explain the options open to them, where necessary to help women and families navigate through formal complaints processes where an adverse outcome has occurred, signposting to other resources. Governance and Reporting - Regularly report to LMNS and Trust Level Boards, providing robust feedback on both individual events and trends, providing recommendations to improve service user experience and patient safety. - Ensure that there are strong links with two-way feedback, between the ISA findings and clinical governance within Maternity. Establish regular reporting to the Quality and Safety Groups and other appropriate forums. - Where necessary, and with the Senior Responsible Officer for the LMNS, escalate unresolved cases of concern, to Trust Boards and through the national network of ISAs. - Prepare and present information and reports to LMNS and Trust level boards. Data and Information - Contribute to the evaluation of the Independent Senior Advocates maintaining and making available information about referrals from women and families, outcomes of case and monitoring data. - Gather information on trends in cases, to share learning from those trends through NHS England regions and to the national network of Independent senior Advocates. Stakeholders - Build positive working relationships with senior clinical colleagues in the Trusts they will be working alongside including, Directors and Heads of Midwifery and senior obstetricians, to build trust and open communication. - Develop active working relationships with the chair of the local Maternity Voices Partnership, to maximize the potential for collaborative working. - Build and maintain effective working relationships with Trust Non-Exec Director, Maternity Safety Champions and with Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS). Communication - Communicates and presents highly complex information to a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. Where necessary, to have robust and challenging conversations with clinicians, advocating on women and families behalf. - Contribute to providing information about the ISA role amongst local organisations, to ensure that women and families who need to access their service know their options. - Develop effective communication with relevant local organisations (e.g. Healthwatch, local advocacy groups), to ensure their role is well understood, and to ensure that women and families from groups who are least likely to express concerns about their care feel more able to do so. Equality and Diversity - Recognise, respect and address the needs of service users who face particular barriers when seeking access to services, including those from minority backgrounds and those with protected characteristics.