West Midlands Regional Maternity Workshop

12th June 2007

The second of the Skills for Health - Workforce Projects Team workforce planning capability workshops was held at the Copthorne Hotel in Birmingham on Tuesday 12th June with 60 delegates representing 30 organisations in the West Midlands SHA region.

The aim of this workforce planning development event was to develop the workforce planning capacity and capability within maternity services and help organisations to develop integrated plans for the implementation of Maternity Matters. The day was a mix of presentations and interactive workshops designed to help the delegates become familiar with the Workforce Projects Team workforce planning approach.

The morning opened with a welcome and introduction followed by presentations highlighting issues identified at the recent CSIP launch event by Sue Hatton, workforce development specialist, women and children, West Midlands SHA and a presentation around the local demographic profile from the West Midlands Deanery by Caroline Donovan, deputy head of workforce development. Bryan Kessie from the Workforce Projects Team introduced the delegates to the the Workforce Projects Team six step guide to workforce planning.

The delegates then completed a number of high level exercises within their locality groups introduced by Stuart Taylor from the Workforce Projects Team around defining the maternity workforce plan, how maternity services can be developed to meet the future needs, what the workforce do we need to deliver the service and what are the characteristics of the workforce? These interactive sessions proved popular and there was lots of discussion around local challenges and issues. Rather than providing an answer these sessions promoted use of effective workforce planning using the six steps and allows the delegates to experience the workforce planning process which they may use in their localities to develop action plans to meet Maternity Matters. Bryan Kessie then discussed the final steps of the six step guide around action planning and review. Caroline Donovan summarised the workshop content and next steps for the delegates were discussed.

Due to limitations with session timings associated presentations - the national context of maternity workforce (Workforce Review Team) and skills and competencies of the maternity workforce (Skills for Health) - can be found on the right hand side menu.