Consultant Midwife

Assist the Director of Midwifery and Women’s Services in the development of the professional midwifery agenda to achieve consistency of practice, high standards of care and innovation with a strong patient safety focus. The postholder will use midwifery expertise to support normality in maternity care and will be required to be a leader in midwifery practice within maternity services across all clinical areas.

The consultant midwife will lead and support midwives in realising their full potential and capability in supporting women and their families and supporting a philosophy of midwifery practice as stated within Nursing and Midwifery Council (NNC) guidance.

As part of the role the consultant midwife will work closely with the Divisional Director of Midwifery/Nursing, Deputy Divisional Director of Midwifery/Nursing, the Midwifery Matrons and Managers, the Obstetric Team and other key stakeholders to develop a Maternity Service that is responsive to the needs of women and its staff. The post holder will not be charged with operational management but will strongly contribute to day-to-day operational issues ensuring any improvements required are embedded back into practice. Although not an operational manager the postholder will participate in the maternity on call rota.

1. Working with the Divisional Director of Midwifery and Deputy Divisional Director of Midwifery the post holder will provide strategic and clinical midwifery leadership which reflects and supports current and future needs of the maternity services. The post holder will be involved in developing and maintaining collaborative working and good communication within the Directorate, to provide evidence based positive patient experience.

2. Leading and sustaining service redesign and empowering midwives to meet the needs of the local population in line with key objectives outlined in local and national policy documents.

3. Work collaboratively across the Local Maternity and Neonatal Maternity System (LMNS) to ensure local, regional, and national midwifery goals and policy are achieved

The post will be characterised by the following four principle functions of a Consultant Midwife:
- Expert Midwifery Practice and Service Development
- Professional Leadership and consultancy function
- Education and Training Function
- Research, audit and evaluation function

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is an integrated Trust and the only provider of NHS acute care in Walsall, serving a population of 286,700, providing inpatient and outpatient services at the Manor Hospital as well as a wide range of services in the community. Walsall Manor houses the full range of district general hospital services under one roof. The £170 million development was completed in 2010 and the continued upgrading of existing areas ensures the Trust now has a state-of-the-art Critical Care Unit, Neonatal Unit, Obstetric Theatre, and Integrated Assessment Unit facilities. Work is also well underway on its multi-million pound new Urgent and Emergency Care Centre which will house a new Emergency Department (including Children’s Emergency Department), co-located Paediatric Assessment Unit, Acute Medical Unit and Urgent Care Centre. This is scheduled for completion this year.

We support flexible working for all employees and prospective applicants.
- Function as an expert practitioner leading midwifery care and working in collaboration with the appropriate multi-disciplinary groups to meet the specific needs of pregnant women
- Take the lead on innovating quality improvement developments and supporting staff to do so.
- Work for up to 50% of the time in clinical practice. This may be on a shift basis to work with different staff groups or/ and specialist clinics. This will wholly depend on work priorities agreed with the Divisional Director of Midwifery
- Provide expert advice to staff and hands on practical care in all practice settings where required
- Demonstrate advanced clinical skills and knowledge that informs practice decisions
- Support staff in developing their competence to enable them to keep the birth process as normal as possible where appropriate.
- Develop strategies to ensure a woman with complex needs benefit fully from a multidisciplinary approach to their care
- Be prepared to make decisions about practice where precedents do not exist, and where appropriate, without recourse to others based on sound clinical evidence
- Advise and support colleagues where standard protocols do not apply
- Develop and maintain evidence-based guidelines for holistic pregnancy practice
- Lead the development of staff to become confident in decision making through empowerment, support and evidence based knowledge