Breaking down walls: The Challenges of Leadership
Dr Tracey Cooper MBE, Head of Midwifery, Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust, presents on her experience as head of midwifery services. She discusses her priorities and addresses the differences between leaders and managers, considering appropriate leadership practices. She explains some of the challenges of trying to fit into a system set up for other specialities as well as some of the positive support maternity receives in her area. Tracey talks about her personal toolkit for being a leader and the people she connects with for support. She concludes with encouragement for everyone to be a leader and addresses questions from the floor
Dr Tracey Cooper MBE, Head of Midwifery, Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust
Inspiring leadership resources
Healthcare Inspectorate Wales 2019 National review of maternity services
https://hiw.org.uk/national-review-maternity-services
Kirkup , B. 2015 The Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation The Stationery Office.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/408480/47487_MBI_Accessible_v0.1.pdf
McCalmont C, Bailey E. 2016 Enhancing and developing leadership in midwifery. The Practising Midwife 19(2):8-10.
National Maternity Review 2016 Better Births: Improving outcomes of maternity services in England – A Five Year Forward View for maternity care
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/national-maternity-review-report.pdf
NHS England Maternity transformation Programme resources
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mat-transformation/
NHS England and Health Education England 2018 Leadership Development
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/leadership-development.pdf
NHS Long term plan
https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/
NHS Lothian Best Start in Lothian resources
https://services.nhslothian.scot/Maternity/Best-Start-in-Lothian/Pages/default.aspx
RCM undated The RCM standards for midwifery services in the UK
https://www.rcm.org.uk/media/2283/rcm-standards-midwifery-services-uk.pdf
RCM Leadership resources
https://www.rcm.org.uk/promoting/learning-careers/leadership/
The Scottish Government 2017 The Best Start: A Five-Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland
https://www.gov.scot/publications/best-start-five-year-forward-plan-maternity-neonatal-care-scotland/pages/0/
The Scottish Government Maternal and Child Health resources
https://www.gov.scot/policies/maternal-and-child-health/
Demonstrating your learning – Inspiring Leadership
We hope you have enjoyed watching the video box set. The aim of producing this package is to enable you to learn about an aspect of midwifery practice which you will be able to use to improve the care of women, babies and their families. As a professional there will be times where you will need to demonstrate you have learned and, don’t forget that, writing down your learning will help this to be embedded in your memory! To this end we have devised some questions to help you progress. You may, of course, devise your own questions as well. These may then be used as part of your professional validation in the future.
Learning Outcomes
After watching these talks you will have:
- Knowledge of the place of maternity services in current structures and the future services
- Examined experiences of leadership and management roles and the impact
- Explored appropriate practical leadership and management
Reflective questions
- Explore the learning outcomes (LO) of this set of videos. What are the key aspects of the LO that are relevant to you and your scope and code of practice?
- Summarise what you have learned from these videos
- What are the feelings that have been raised as you watched them? Why you have felt this?
- What are the key pieces of research or evidence that you have learned about?
- How will this learning now affect your practice; the women, babies and families in your care?
- Are there ways you plan to make changes or take forward with others?
- What else would you like to find out about to help your learning on this topic?
Dr Tracey Cooper MBE, Head of Midwifery, Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust
Dr Tracey Cooper has 25 years midwifery experience, working in all areas of midwifery and birth settings. She has held both management and Consultant Midwife roles.
She is currently Head of Midwifery at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She has successfully developed both freestanding and alongside midwifery led units and midwifery models of care.
She contributes to guidance and professional policy locally and nationally. She is currently a member of the NICE High Risk Intrapartum Guideline Group. She was a member of the NICE Intrapartum guideline group and the new NICE Intrapartum Standards for Healthy Women and Babies. She is a CQC Specialist Advisor and part of the BJM Editorial Board. She has been working internationally to assist midwives in Bulgaria to develop midwifery led services in an oppressive medicalised culture.
Tracey gained her PhD in 2011 at UCLAN, looking at Women and Midwives Perceptions of the Midwife’s Role.
