What is the purpose of this national support?
This national support aims to support the effectiveness of local MVPs by supporting MVP chairs and members in their work. It complements local and regional support and focuses on those elements of support that can be provided most effectively at a national level.
What are the objectives for the national support offer?
The national support offer will focus on the following objectives (listed in the order of priority with which they have been raised with us by MVP members):
- To improve the alignment of MVP resourcing with the workload of MVPs,
- To raise awareness of MVPs amongst diverse service users and staff,
- To provide greater clarity around expectations relating to MVPs.
Who will deliver this support and how do we know it will meet the needs of MVPs?
National Maternity Voices (NMV) has been commissioned by NHS England to co-produce and deliver this support. Having now co-produced the support offer (see our report), NMV will work collaboratively with stakeholders including MVP chairs/members and NHSE, to ensure the support is aligned to the current needs of MVPs. We will evaluate the support by asking how well MVP chairs and members feel their MVP has been supported from a national level.
What support will be provided?
We will immediately start work on the following priority projects:
- Coproduce regular national video calls for and with MVP chairs, to facilitate communication between chairs and with national decision-makers.
- Identify the key NHS staff members who have influence over MVPs and communicate to them key elements of national guidance relating to MVPs.
- Coproduce an induction process and information pack for new chairs.
Other support will include the following activity, subject to ongoing collaboration with MVP chairs and members:
- Developing a resource bank for MVPs
- Facilitating national collaboration between MVP chairs and NHSE
- Email enquiries helpdesk for MVP members and others
- Peer support, provided through existing social media channels and additionally through the NHS Futures platform.
- Continuing support for the Nova Network alongside engagement with Black, Asian and ethnic minority MVP chairs about future support
- Map of MVPs on the NMV web site
- Focused newsletters/updates for MVP chairs and members.
- Raising the national profile of MVPs – e.g. responding to requests from national organisations for MVP chairs as conference speakers or other collaboration with MVPs.
- Training for MVP chairs and multidisciplinary groups offered as a paid-for service.
