This autumn will be a busy and challenging time as we come to terms with what the Health and Social Care Bill, and changes following the elections in the devolved administrations, will mean for maternity services. Looking forward to the RCM conference in November, I know this will provide a vital opportunity for us to come together to discuss, create and share ideas. Attending our
conference in Brighton will be particularly valuable whatever your role in the maternity team and we hope you will be joining us.
What stood out from last year’s conference was how valuable delegates found taking time to step aside and reflect on what being a midwife is really about and why we do the job. This year promises even more inspiration and evidence-based developments for you to take back to your workplace or university, including interactive workshops, extra concurrent stream sessions and a free legal surgery.
We will be continuing to focus on the difference midwives can make to public health outcomes. We will also be presenting our Home Birth Audit and considering the findings of the Birthplace in England Research Programme. Once again, you gave the judges an outstanding field of abstracts to choose from to create an exceptional professional programme.
Conference is our chance to hear from and challenge the politicians – the minister for health and shadow secretary of state for England will be on our platform taking your questions. We will be using conference to focus media attention on maternity issues as we step up our campaigning to protect maternity services, promote the value of the midwife, and defend your pensions, terms and conditions and jobs.
Also in November, we will be launching our first
State of maternity services report. We intend this to become an annual evidence-based overview from the RCM of how NHS maternity services are performing in each part of the UK, to influence politicians and policy-makers on the challenges facing the service.
We hope you will be with us in Brighton, but if you cannot attend, remember you can be part of our busy autumn of campaigning, challenging and inspiring. You can keep up with the RCM and fellow RCM members through
RCM Communities and by following us on
Twitter, as well as meeting us as we visit workplaces and universities across the UK.
