Dorset Substainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) was chosen as one of seven sites that have been identified to pave the way for national roll-out of initiatives that deliver safer, more personalised care for all women and every baby, improve outcomes, and reduce inequalities and are crucial in delivering the objectives of the Maternity Transformation Programme.

Dorset STPs ambitions include supporting and empowering women to develop personalised care plans, ensuring that care is wrapped around the needs of women, their babies and family. Dorset will also be working to improve equity of postnatal care for both low and high risk women, and improving postnatal care in general by collaborating with other healthcare professionals including perinatal mental health teams.

A key recommendation of Better Births was that NHS England should: seek volunteer localities to act as early adopters to harness enthusiasm for change and test the model of care described in the report.

Through a network of support coordinated by the Maternity Transformation Programme, the Early Adopters are now taking forward the implementation of the vision in Better Births, going further and faster, and will share the learning from their experiences.

The experiences of the Early Adopters will pave the way for national roll-out of initiatives that deliver safer, more personalised care for all women and every baby, improve outcomes, and reduce inequalities. Early Adopters are crucial in delivering the objectives of the Maternity Transformation Programme.

Seven Early Adopter sites have been identified, following a competitive selection process supported by Members of the Maternity Transformation Programme Board, of which Dorset is one. Follow the link  to see more about Dorset Early Adopter

NHS Dorset Early Adopter site will focus on

• Providing better personalised care planning
• Improving postnatal care
• One Pan Dorset model for high risk and vulnerable women, including continuity of carer
• Pilot of a community hubs

The time frame planned for the Better Births in Dorset project can be seen below.

Over the last few months we have been seeking views from people who have had experience of maternity care in Dorset in the last five years. We held workshops using Whose Shoes board games and an online survey for both staff and those with experience of services in Dorset to gather feedback. We had 427 responses to the survey, 69 responses to the staff survey and 57 attendees attended the workshops. We have been provided with a wealth of feedback about women’s and their families experiences.

We commissioned the Market Research Group to assist with the analysis and reporting process of all the data gathered. The Market Group report will be presented to the Maternity Early Adopter Project Board in September 2017 which  will then inform the remodelling and redesign phase of the project. Implementation to test the co-produced models of care will begin in January 2018, concluding in December 2018, when all findings will be reported back to NHS England for evaluation and to support other Sustainability and Transformation Plans in delivery of the Maternity Transformation Programme.

Maternity services review, Consultation Results August 2017