Kirklees embedding feedback into maternity services at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust

During a 3 week period from 21 November to 9 December 2016, Healthwatch Calderdale went out and spoke to as many people as possible who were currently accessing maternity services in Calderdale and Huddersfield and those who had used maternity services there in the past 2 years. People were asked to complete a survey, either online or on a paper copy . Healthwatch Calderdale gathered feedback from people by visiting a wide range of community-based and hospital based services across Calderdale and Huddersfield.

During the 3 week engagement period, staff from Healthwatch Calderdale visited 9 health visiting clinics; 6 parent and toddler groups and breastfeeding support groups; 7 hospital-based antenatal and postnatal clinics, wards and birth centres. Healthwatch Calderdale also visited Local’s Support for Women and Antenatal Service (SWANS service) which works with pregnant women with complex social needs. 1260 people participatied in the survey.

Healthwatch Calderdale used social media to promote the survey to a wider audience, using targeted messages and advertising.

Staff who work in maternity services were also asked to give their feedback on how Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) gather feedback from people who are using or have recently used maternity services. Staff were asked to complete a survey but staff from Healthwatch Calderdale also attended meetings and had open discussions with maternity staff to establish how the feedback process currently works and how staff feel this could be improved.

Healthwatch Calderdale have anonymised all the comments they received about maternity services and sent these through to CHFT so that this feedback can be used to celebrate successes and to inform their quality improvement plans.

This engagement has highlighted that there are many different ways that people would like to give feedback on maternity services and although CHFT are improving their friend and family test (FFT) response rate, more needs to be done to ensure feedback opportunities are accessible to all.

Staff feel very well supported by senior management in the task of gathering feedback and it’s clear that a lot of time and effort is invested in analysing comments and setting actions as a result of feedback obtained. However, this dedication and commitment to the process of listening to and responding to feedback is not always communicated to people who use maternity services and much more needs to be done to inform people that their opinions are given very high priority and that improvements to services do happen as a result of feedback.