The winners of the RCM Awards 2024 were announced on 18 Oct at the Brewery London.
Please see the photos from the event below:
And the winners are...
Winner
Jemima Ward
Medway Council
Approximately 28% of women are categorised as overweight and 22% of women as obese at the start of pregnancy. To reduce risk and improve population health, Medway Council designed, developed and implemented a community-centred service, BumpClub, to support pregnant women in making lifestyle changes. Since the programme launched in March 2021, there have been 573 eligible referrals, 376 people booked to attend, and 351 individual behaviour changes made (such as increasing daily fruit and vegetable intake, reducing frequency of eating fried or fatty foods, reducing intake of sugary drinks and increasing daily activity). Walking is the most frequently cited physical activity for pregnant women, and it offers potential solutions to reported barriers such as lack of time, childcare responsibilities, bad weather and lack of exercise equipment. With that in mind, in March 2022, BumpClub Health Walks was launched to increase physical activity levels in pregnant and postnatal women. All past, present and future BumpClub members are invited to attend a weekly, two-mile local walk.
Judges said: “A unique initiative that has had a far-reaching impact not just on obesity but on social connectivity and mental health. The initiative encourages women to have continued engagement in their health and wellbeing up to two years postnatally – women even return in subsequent pregnancies.”
Winner
Robyn Dalton
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
After maternity support workers (MSWs) were introduced to the Trust in 2018, leaders had to swiftly initiate efforts to synchronise with the Health Education England (HEE) MSW framework. At first, no single MSW within the trust possessed proficiency in all the clinical skills required for full compliance, for example. Funding was secured for a six-month secondment of an MSW support and development midwife to ensure alignment with the framework. Robyn successfully helped the Trust align its MSW workforce with HEE requirements, achieving milestones such as 100% completion of the reissued Level 3 Maternity Support Worker Skills and Competency Passport by November 2023, an increase in MSW retention from 75% to 95%, perception of feeling valued rising from 33% to 100%, and an improvement in MSWs’ confidence in their skills improving from 1/5 to 4/5 or 5/5.
Judges said: “We were impressed by Robyn’s acknowledgement of the value and contribution of the MSWs in the maternity workplace, including her contribution towards the education of students. Her passion for developing MSWs in their careers was uplifting and inspiring.”
Winner
POOL Study Team
Cardiff University
The POOL study team conducted the largest global study of waterbirths, the primary objective of which was to answer a question commonly asked by women using water immersion analgesia: “If everything remains okay during labour should I stay in or get out for birth?” As a result of the study, which required data on more than 30,000 women using water immersion during labour to be collected, midwives can now answer with complete confidence that waterbirth is a safe option for women and their babies. Rates of outcomes such as obstetric anal sphincter injury or neonatal death were no higher than in births out of the water. NICE has already indicated that the results of the POOL study will inform future recommendations on waterbirth. Along with the main study paper which has been submitted for publication, the team worked with its PPI partners and multidisciplinary collaborators to develop freely available online resources that will make their findings accessible to all midwives and expectant parents.
Judges said: “High-calibre research, performed and led by midwives working collaboratively with the multidisciplinary team. It answers a gap in the evidence, as identified by NICE in 2007. The study has provided conclusive evidence of the safety of waterbirth for women and their babies. We can see how impactful the findings will be for midwives and women.”
Winner
Alison Callwood
University of Surrey
Alison has spent over 15 years researching and implementing radical change in selection processes to challenge unconscious bias. Her postdoctoral research, focused on ensuring fairness in online interviews, has culminated in the development of a multi-award-winning asynchronous interview platform. The aim of Alison’s work is to level the playing field in candidate selection and enable under-represented groups access to midwifery education and employment. Data on over 2,000 applicants between 2022 and 2024 shows that the interview platform is consistently reliable and fair across subgroups such as age, gender, ethnicity and neurodivergence.
Next, in 2023/24, Alison led a team to better understand the accessibility needs of neurodivergent applicants when undertaking online interviews. Since 2022, selection across health professions’ education programmes has changed as a direct result of her work. This is evidenced not only in the number of organisations using the platform with over 10,000 interviews conducted to date, but also up to 11 times contract expansion within these organisations.
Judges said: “Alison has demonstrated powerful impact through her work. She has shown an immense level of knowledge and depth of courage to take her idea for fairness in academic organisational to a global arena to support future midwifery and change the equity narrative. Her work is bringing innovation into midwifery and beyond to enable fairness and reduce covert discrimination that exists in society.”
Winner
Annmarie Thomas
Swansea Bay University Health Board
Women with moderate mental health needs did not meet the referral criteria of specialist teams, leading to a lack of support and inappropriate referrals to the specialist perinatal mental health team. The introduction of a maternity wellbeing clinic has allowed the Health Board to work in collaboration with women, families and mental health colleagues to offer a stepped approach for women experiencing different degrees of mental ill health, while embedding national perinatal mental health pathways for Wales into maternity services.
Midwives now feel confident and supported to open dialogue with families about mental health. The introduction of evidence-based screening tools also allows midwives to feel confident and competent at identifying the right route of support, from the right professional background. Women below the threshold to access specialist mental health services can now access a timely, supportive and preventative intervention that empowers them to manage emotional overwhelm, giving them life tools for the next generation.
Judges said: “It has taken 16 years of focus on improving perinatal mental health to get to this point, with many barriers and challenges being overcome. The scheme recognises that the needs of women and staff are married together.”
Winner
Claire Braithwaite
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The Trust’s maternity bereavement service is committed to excellence because there are no second chances to get it right at this most painful of moments. The power of ‘memories made’ has been a focus of its personalised care, and the opportunity to make meaningful and healing memories, embracing the briefest footprint of a child, is a key part of the offer. Each family is encouraged to make an individual plan for building memories. This includes using the medical illustrations team to take professional-quality photographs of babies and their families. Families can celebrate and acknowledge their baby, and staff are encouraged to remember to ‘congratulate them’ on the birth of their baby, however tragic the situation. The team encourage wider family to visit and meet the baby, and siblings, grandparents and close friends come to the Butterfly bereavement suite to be together, support each other, meet the baby and make restorative memories. Staff support families in their choice to take their baby to an area which is special to them, such as a quiet beach or woodland walk. Although this may not be an option for lots of families, the bereavement midwife is able to support these families to make it possible for them to just be a family for the briefest of time.
Judges said: “Claire is deeply compassionate, inspiring and educational. She works above and beyond her job description and empowers families to make the right choices for them.”
Winner
Maternity Assessment Unit
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust
BSOTS (Birmingham Symptom Specific Obstetric Triage System), introduced in 2021, suffered teething problems such as significant wait times and staff feeling unsafe. A Care Quality Commission inspection in 2023 identified the need to improve the time to triage patients in line with the Trust target of 30 minutes (stretch target of 15 minutes). Performance in 2022 ranged from an average of 53% for 30 minutes triage and 32% for 15 minutes triage. A clinically led improvement group reviewed and revised practices and tested an enhanced staffing model. Telephone triage is consistently staffed 24/7 by a midwife and relocated outside of the clinical area. A supernumerary shift leader helps prioritise workload and manage the patient flow.
Triage performance has improved vastly in quality, safety and patient experience: so much so that in January to March 2024, a 30-minute triage was 100% and a 15-minute triage 97.87%.
Judges said: “The whole team, from clerks to consultants, are all as important as each other. Psychological support for staff is prioritised, the team are very invested in the service, and flexibility and listening to staff allows positive team working and staff experience.”
Winner
Sallie Ward, Ask a Midwife Team
Humber and North Yorkshire Local Maternity and Neonatal System
The online Ask a Midwife service offers emotional and social support, and information to empower women and their families across four Trusts. It is run by midwives on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, ensuring timely, informed decisions are made about maternity care through consistent messaging. The service routinely answers over 600 messages per month and posts public health information daily. One trust alone has 17,600 Facebook followers. More than 94% of queries can be answered immediately and the other 6% are referred appropriately. Services are aligned based on the current needs of service users and adapt appropriately to feedback.
Unlike face-to-face appointments requiring an immediate response, this model of communication enables midwives to research best available evidence and acquire new knowledge that can then be disseminated in practice as well as online to the public and private messages.
Judges said: “A midwifery-driven project implemented with passion that unflatteringly places women and families at the heart of the work. It embodies all aspects of the midwifery role, emphasising the public health agenda. The impact of its effectiveness is clearly far-reaching, empowering women and looking people to take charge of their own health and wellbeing. The service provided is inclusive, evidence-based and high quality.”
Winner
Kayty Richards
University of Derby
Kayty is already a star in the student midwifery community and will soon be a great asset as a newly qualified midwife. Despite personal challenges, including a diagnosis of ADHD in her second year, and raising a young family, she established the first midwifery society at her university and became president for two consecutive years. She has also been an elected member of the Student Midwives Forum since January 2023.
Following a difficult experience of bullying and discrimination in her placement trust, Kayty was courageous enough to raise official concerns of poor workplace culture as she felt it was impacting students, staff and women. Her determination to challenge ingrained behaviours led to other students and midwives coming forward and creating authentic cultural change in the Trust. She is committed to leading compassionately and consistently advocates for others.
Judges said: “Clear evidence that Kayty is an ambassador for midwifery and students with an honest reflection of the challenges she faced. She demonstrates courage in standing up for high standards, improving culture and changing the narrative.”
Winner
Kirsten Herdman
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
Kirsten is passionate about bringing members together, amplifying the collective voice of members and representing them on the issues that matter to them. She is widely regarded as being the voice of the RCM on a local level, and her work as an RCM rep has resulted in countless members feeling empowered to use their voice on the issues that affect them in the workplace. Kirsten consistently promotes the value of the RCM and engages members. She constantly walks around to speak to members and recruit to the branch, teaching them about RCM member benefits and the importance being involved in their branch.
Recently, she undertook a grievance out on behalf of the Band 2s ensuring they were given Band 3s. This work was done independently while keeping the regional officers up to date. Her hard work was successful and made a great impact on all the MSW members involved. Kirsten is now looking to mentor new activists in the branch and has demonstrated the importance of succession planning.
Winner
Josephine Oamen
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Josephine is an example of kindness and compassion, honesty, inclusiveness and courage. She has demonstrated the ability to communicate effectively with members of staff of all levels and disciplines, and shown initiative in bringing about change for improving the maternity service and the workplace for patients and staff.
Being visible, approachable and committed to positive change, she is truly inclusive, understanding how racism is built into hierarchies, and recognises and respects cultural differences, working for psychological safety for vulnerable members of staff. Where there have been instances of racism or unequal treatment of staff or patients, she has held those who are responsible accountable. She has thought strategically and raised the level of transparency expected in areas of reporting. She has held managers accountable for bias in recruitment to higher paying midwifery positions, and for the development of cliques that led to patient care going unaddressed. At the same time, in her day-to-day work, she keeps to the highest clinical standards and is always concerned with the wellbeing of the families in our care and devoted to staff wellbeing and support for staff.
Winner
Kerry Horley
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust
Kerry has taken on the role of assistant practitioner within the Trust’s practice education team, leading on MSW development. This is a new position, previously filled by a midwife. Since joining the team, she has developed the role significantly and subsequently had her hours increased.
She has taken on the lead role for moving and handling training within maternity – a big gap to fill because many midwives and midwifery support workers are non-compliant. Kerry has worked tirelessly, completing a four-day course with an exam to be able to provide training to her colleagues. Kind, patient and compassionate, she has been described as a ‘quiet leader’, completing work thoroughly and efficiently, ensuring the best for all staff and patients. She does not shy away from responsibility, rather proactively seeks out opportunities to improve staff support, training and patient care. She whole-heartedly seeks out learning opportunities to develop herself to fulfil and exceed expectations: for example, a Train the Trainer course. ECG training and health promotion information to workers.
Judges said: “Kerry has achieved enormous benefits for MSWs in her unit, with training, pastoral care and support and revaluation of designed manual handling. She has also helped reduce admissions into NICU and assisted in the recruitment and retention of MSWs.”
Winner
Kathy Murphy
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Kathy Murphy has a long history of successful, innovative and inspirational achievements in the largest maternity service in the UK. She identified six key areas of development for the heads of midwifery and directors of midwifery, allowing leaders within the local maternity and neonatal system to network and forge strong connections and professional working relationships. These leaders were able to inwardly reflect upon individual drivers to enable them to understand how they are motivated to support maternity services. Katy was pivotal in leading a significant reconfiguration of maternity services across the region to further develop and improve access to maternity services for women and families across the region. This has led to standardisation and equity in care provision for women accessing the services and better outcomes.
Judges said: “A compassionate, humble, inclusive leader focused on her team. Her career has spanned 42 years, but she remains curious and innovative, always with women’s voices and experiences at the heart of everything she does, translating courage into conviction. Kathy’s leadership has fostered a consistent, standardised approach, while enabling the culture and diverse needs of women and the teams in each geographical area to thrive.”
Winner
Nurture Clinic
Northern Health and Social Care Trust
‘Everyone wants to hold the baby, but who wants to hold the mum?’ This phrase captures the team’s motivation for extending their service to women accessing maternity services with drug and alcohol issues. Within the Trust’s region it is estimated that around one in 12 children live with parents who have substance misuse issues. The aim of this project was to work collaboratively with each service user to reduce the stigma surrounding substance misuse. Therefore, the team appointed a new specialist midwife with expertise in the arena of social complexity to provide ongoing support and advice to teams, women and their families. The midwifery team also engaged with the Trust addictions team to provide inpatient care for women experiencing detox and withdrawal during pregnancy and the postnatal period. An addictions pathway was established to provide all members of the team with expert clinical advice and a framework for current and future care.
A joint clinic with the advanced addiction nurse practitioner was subsequently established, with one session a week expanding to three. Those who attend the clinic not only benefit from physical and psychological support but also from monitoring up to six weeks post-delivery. This clinic has had very positive outcomes for women and exposed midwives to a greater understanding of working with social services, police, addiction specialists and neonatal colleagues.
Judges said: “This initiative, with its ‘think family approach’, recognises that addiction is not a choice, that the past continues to have an impact, and that the cycle can be broken.”