Once you have identified at least your core membership, you can arrange your first meeting. At this meeting, you may want to:
- create an opportunity for your members to get to know each other
- agree your terms of reference
- explain the importance of declaring any conflicts of interest and make clear how members can do that
- elect your chair and vice-chair
- discuss priorities for your initial workplan.
It would be helpful for this meeting to be facilitated by someone who is skilled at managing meetings in which service users and health professionals are equal partners. Consider the location and timing of your meeting, aiming for it to be accessible to as many staff and service user members as possible. Promoting this meeting widely provides a further opportunity to maximise the involvement of service users from diverse backgrounds and staff engagement with your Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP).
Model MVP terms of reference are available on the NMV web site which you can adapt for your local circumstances as a starting point for discussion in your MVP.
Weâd like to link to some examples of local MVP terms of reference as well as conflicts of interest policies. Does your MVP have current examples that are working well in your locality? If youâd be happy for this to be shared here, please contribute via this form. Please say if you would prefer your resource to be anonymised. Thank you.