About us Gloucestershire Maternity Voices Partnership Who are we? Gloucestershire Maternity Voices Partnership (GMVP) is a group of parent representatives and professionals who work together to help shape and develop maternity services in Gloucestershire. Maternity Voices Partnerships are currently being created across the country. Some are more developed than others and in Gloucestershire it is still early days. We’ve appointed our Chair, Emma Rawlinson and are now looking to recruit volunteers and build the team supporting our work. We hope that our volunteers will help us ensure feedback from women and their families informs our plans and service developments. You can find out more about getting involved here. Our members Local people who have recently had a baby or are currently expecting a baby Healthcare professionals, including midwives, health visitors, obstetricians and neonatal staff who work at our maternity units in Gloucestershire and provide care in the community. Representatives from Public Health and NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Representatives from voluntary groups who support pregnant women and new parents Our Priorities During the last year we have been listening to your feedback and finding out what matters to you. Using what you’ve told us, we have agreed what things we want to focus on as our priorities in 2020. Take a look at the graphic below, and if you want to find out any more about anything on here, drop us an email via glccg.glosmvp@nhs.net Meet the team Find out more about the MVP team by clicking on their names below. Emma (Our Chair) Emma has two children, Sophia and Ethan. She grew up in Cheltenham, met her husband in London and then moved back to Cheltenham to get married and start a family. She has first hand experience of Gloucestershire Maternity Services, having given birth to her children in the Aveta Birth Centre in Cheltenham and Gloucester Birth Unit respectively. Emma spent most of her career before maternity leave working for an accountancy firm, where she was predominantly involved in the people side of the business, as well as qualifying as a Chartered Certified Accountant. She also completed a brief stint in recruitment and now runs two home businesses in the beauty industry, alongside being a stay at home mum. Dana Dana has two daughters and has worked for over 10 years as a qualified accountant for the NHS. Dana joined the MVP when she saw an event advertised which mentioned ‘helping to improve services’. It was free, in a child friendly environment and had cake, which was a bonus! Dana says that she found it very overwhelming when she first went to the event and she was very emotional trying to join in, but she is glad that she went and stayed as she’s met a great bunch of people and she would encourage anyone else who feels nervous to give it a go. Dana says that she loves taking the girls to volunteer events promoting the work of the MVP and getting involved with projects where she can. Mandy Mandy is mum to a little boy, wife to Mike and a Nurse working in Cheltenham. She found out about MVP at an event where parents were invited to come along and give feedback early in 2019. She decided to become more involved as she felt it was important to give feedback as well as provide a voice for other mums and dads. Overall, Mandy says that her maternity experience was a positive one, but she had a few issues with choices for labour which she felt could have been better explained. She says it has been a great experience getting involved with the MVP helping to improve maternity services within Gloucestershire and she would encourage others to do the same. Katherine Katherine works in the Engagement team at NHS Gloucestershire CCG. She has three children; James, Lydia and Charlotte, all of whom were born in Gloucester. She is passionate about ensuring people that have recently used, are currently using or planning to use maternity services have a voice to share their experiences and for that to inform any changes to services. Katherine supports the MVP with all things engagement, including providing advice, building links with communities, managing the volunteer database and attending events to promote the work of the MVP. She also supports the development and maintenance of the MVP website. Beth Beth is Service Improvement Manager in the Children’s Mental Health & Maternity Team at NHS Gloucesterhsire CCG and MVP is one of the many projects for which she is lead. She doesn’t have children yet, but says that involvement with the MVP has given her secret insight into the ups and downs of parenthood. Beth loves being part of the MVP and is committed to ensuring the NHS works with women and their families and uses their feedback to deliver the best possible care. Sophie Sophie (almost always known as ‘Soph’) is Communications Officer at NHS Gloucestershire CCG. She supports the MVP with social media, promotion of the partnership and coordinated development of the MVP website. She works in partnership with the engagement team to ensure that the messages from the MVP are accessible. Involved from the very beginning, Soph is excited to see the partnership continue to grow and achieve great things for women and maternity services locally. Rachel Rachel’s bio will follow soon! Hannah Hannah’s bio will follow soon!