Maternity and neonatal independent senior advocate

The maternity and neonatal independent senior advocate role is a new way to support women, birthing people and families in England. This follows the immediate and essential actions identified in the Ockenden review into maternity care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital.

The role was developed with NHS England, people who have had adverse outcomes and NHS staff.

Maternity and neonatal independent senior advocates help to make sure the voices of women, birthing people and families are listened to, heard and acted on by their maternity and neonatal care teams when they have experienced an adverse outcome in their maternity and/or neonatal care which will run until March 2025. After this, the NHS will look at whether the plan has been helpful to those who have had distressing experiences during their maternity and/or neonatal care.

If Louise is still supporting you in March 2025, she will work out a new plan with you and her team. They will make sure you carry on getting the support you need.

If something went wrong in your maternity or neonatal care at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals or University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, you can go to the advocate for help. 

Your advocate may be able to support you whether your experience was recently or some time ago, she can:

  • Your baby died before they were born and this was after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
  • Your baby has died in the days or weeks after they were born.
  • The baby’s mother has died.
  • You had an unexpected or unplanned removal of your womb (within 6 weeks of giving birth).
  • You had care in a critical care unit or an intensive care unit and this wasn’t planned.
  • Your baby has a brain injury or the team thought they might have.

If any of these things have happened to you or those close to you then your advocate is here for you and your family. They can:

  • Help support you and your family to be listened to and heard by maternity and neonatal care teams.
  • Go to meetings with you.
  • Support you to understand what happened in your care.
  • Support you through investigation and complaints processes.

You do not need to be sure if there were mistakes or negligence in the mother or baby’s care to ask for support. If the advocate is not the best person to support you, they will tell you about other support that is available for you.

The maternity and neonatal independent senior advocate for Lancashire and South Cumbria is Louise Peacock. She has worked in maternity services in Cheshire and Merseyside for the last 10 years and has been a lecturer in midwifery. This means she really knows maternity and neonatal systems and can help you to understand them too. Louise will sit alongside you on this journey and make sure you feel listened to and heard by those who have provided your care. She will keep what you tell her confidential unless you ask or agree for her to share it with others. The only exception to this is if she has worries about you or your family’s safety that she must share, which she will talk to you about first.

If Louise is on leave, one of her team may help her by checking if there are messages that need a reply. They will follow the same rules as Louise around sharing your information.

Contacting your advocate is free. You will not be charged for any support and if you need an interpreter, one can be made available for you. You can contact your advocate by phone, email or by filling out the form here. You can also ask staff in your local hospital, GP surgery or any health and care professional to get the advocate to contact you.

Lscicb.mnisa@nhs.net

07747 455625

It is your choice whether you use a maternity and neonatal independent senior advocate and if at any time you don’t want their service you can tell them but you don’t need to give a reason why.

A maternity and neonatal independent senior advocate is independent from the trust that provided your care. They report to Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, which is responsible for directing the way care is carried out in your area.

The advocate keeps what you tell them confidential, unless you ask or agree for them to share it with others. The only exception to this is if she has worries about your safety or your family’s safety that she must share, if this is the case she will talk to you about it first.

If Louise is on leave, one of her team may help her by checking if there are messages that need a reply. They will follow the same rules as Louise around sharing your information.

At the end of the pilot (March 2025), if your case is still ongoing, a follow up support plan will be discussed with you. As this is a pilot scheme, there are currently no alternate maternity and neonatal independent senior advocates if you do not feel that your advocate is the right person for you. However, if you have a complaint about your maternity and neonatal independent senior advocate then you can contact Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB patient experience team on:
Freephone: 0800 032 2424

Email: mlcsu.lscpatientexperience@nhs.net

Or click here.

NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board and NHS England are working together to deliver the MNISA service.  

For the purposes of data protection laws the ICB and NHS England are “joint controllers” for the use (processing) of your personal information in this notice. This means that we have both worked together to decide why and how your personal data (processed). It also means we are jointly responsible to you under the law for that processing. 

To confirm -

  • NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board is responsible for handling your personal information regarding any engagement you have with the MNISA service.
  • NHS England has responsibility for providing the reporting system that the MNISA service (e.g., NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board) uses to handling your personal information. For example, securely storing any information you provide when engaging with the service. NHS England will also process your de-identified and anonymised data to ensure the service works, can improve and adapt to any changing requirements.

In this notice, any reference to “we”, “us” or “our” is NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board and any reference to NHS England is given directly.

This notice describes how and why your personal information is used and by who. Any sharing of that information; by who and why. As well as how to contact us or NHS England should you have any questions or concerns about the use of your personal information.

Whilst NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board and NHS England are joint controllers for your information. The NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board have taken responsibility to be the point of contact for any data protection queries. For further information about NHS England, see the NHS England privacy notice here. The NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board privacy notice can also be accessed here – NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria :: Privacy notice (healthierlsc.co.uk) 

Our contact details  

NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board
Level 3, Christ Church Precinct
County Hall
Fishergate Hill
Preston
PR1 8XB

Phone number: 0300 373 3550

E-mail: lsc.icb@nhs.net 

The type of personal information we collect  

We collect and process the following information: 

  • Your contact information; name, telephone number, email address 
  • Health related information 
  • Date and details relating to your experiences  
  • Racial or ethnic origin 

How we get the personal information and why we have it 

The personal information is provided directly by you for one of the following reasons: 

  • We collect personal data from you when you approach the MNISA service to engage with an Advocate/the service
  • We use the personal data, you provide us with, in order to give you relevant support in relation to your experience 
  • This includes:
    • Engaging with the healthcare setting you are involved in to seek improvement, dialogue or understand issues 
    • Provide you with any signposting for other support relevant to your situation 
  • NHS England use your personal data to assess the viability of the service and ensure improvement in services; for both the MNISA and maternity services  
    • This includes using de-identified information to help understand themes and trends raised, scope and reach of the service, to be able to report progress of the pilot and to help understand the impact of the MNISA work. 

We may share your information with the healthcare setting you have told us about.

We will talk with you about what information we feel may be necessary to share in order to seek improvement or engage in discussions with them about your experiences.  

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board and NHS England rely on for processing your information under this service, and of which is special category data are:  

  • Article 6(1)(e) We need it to perform a public task. 
  • Article 9(2)(h) We need it for the provision and management of our health or social care system  

How we store your personal information  

Your personal information is stored securely on NHS England’s, IT system. Your personal information will not be routinely accessed by anyone in the [insert ICB] or NHS England, apart from the MNISA themselves; unless a technical issue arises with CRM and it is necessary for NHS England to assess the issue to maintain the security and functionality of the system and its data. Or, your advocate is absent and your case, with your agreement, is transferred. We and NHS England will retain and dispose of your personal information in line with the NHSX_Records_Management_CoP_V7.pdf (england.nhs.uk). 

Your data protection rights 

Under data protection law, you have a number of data protection rights. For example, right of access, where you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

The regulatory body responsible for upholding data protection, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) also has information regarding data subject rights which can be found here. 

Please contact us at mlcsu.dpo@nhs.net if you wish to make a request. 

How to complain 

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us, see our ICB contact details at - https://www.lancashireandsouthcumbria.icb.nhs.uk/contact-us/customer-care-team. 

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data. Their address is:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113 

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk 

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