Gathering Feedback

There are a myriad of ways to gather feedback from women and their families about their experiences of maternity care. Here are some examples commonly used by Maternity Voices Partnerships.

15 Steps for Maternity

Developed by NHS England in conjunction with National Maternity Voices, 15 Steps for Maternity is a toolkit designed especially for use by Maternity Voices Partnerships (MVPs) which uses an observational approach to understanding what service users experience as they access local maternity care.

Walk the Patch

Walking the Patch is a great way for service user reps to gather feedback from women and their families currently experiencing maternity care in the hospital or community setting.

ALL Maternity Voices – representing everyone in your area

The All Maternity Voices (PDF 238KB) guidance produced by the London MVP strategic group is intended to help you as MVP members find out about different groups of maternity services users in your area and about health inequalities. We know that much is expected of MVPs, so this document will help you address maternity inequalities without the task feeling overwhelming or getting left on the ‘too difficult’ pile.

Mother’s Voices

These listening events for local parents and parents-to-be are run by service user reps and provide an opportunity for mothers, fathers and anyone involved in supporting women during pregnancy, birth and the first few days with a new baby to have their say about local maternity care. See how Reading MVP established their Mothers Voices event.

Online Surveys

Surveys enable MVPs to catch anonymous feedback from local women and their families at any time. They can be general or issue specific.

Community Visits

Essentially walking the patch in the community where service user reps attend parent and baby groups or events to gather feedback from new parents.

Focus Groups

When an MVP wishes to focus on a particular topic in their plan of work a focus group may be held. Bringing together service users and clinicians with experience of a specific issue to brainstorm solutions together and co-design services.