York and Scarborough MNVP
About York and Scarborough MNVP
York and Scarborough Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership is a group of service users, healthcare professionals and local organisations working together to improve maternity and neonatal care through a close working relationship with York and Scarborough Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust. Our aim is to make maternity and neonatal care better for the people who use the services, through listening to your voices.
If you received maternity and/or neonatal care as part of York and Scarborough trust, we’d love to hear your experiences. Anyone, from those going through the birth to those helping to deliver can be part of our MNVP community.
Our meetings are usually quarterly and involve bringing together professionals from maternity and neonatal services and other organisations working with women, parents, birthing people and families who use the services. The idea is to inform and guide professionals working at the hospital trusts about individual’s experiences of the treatment they’ve received, being pregnant, giving birth and after care concerning their health and wellbeing.
We are looking for volunteers to help promote the MNVP group, gather feedback, and be part of focus groups, as we work to implement change stemming directly from your experiences. Please contact us if you are interested in being involved.
We want to provide a platform where all voices can be heard
Meet Your York and Scarborough MNVP Lead
About
I'm Helen and I became a full time mum when my daughter was born in 2019. After 3 wonderful years of being a stay at home mum the time was right to get back into work. Having previously worked as a teacher and attachment in education specialist, it was important to me to find a role where I could contribute to making a difference. When I saw the role for the (then) MVP chair advertised it sounded exactly the sort of thing I could use my passion and skill set for. The role has grown in the time I've been here and I am proud to hold a post where I can genuinely say listening to your voices is at the heart of what I and the MNVP team do, in order to improve and celebrate maternity and neonatal care.
Interests
My personal interests lie within education, equality and diversity, attachment and effective communication. They are at the heart of positive maternity and neonatal services and experiences
What would you like to achieve as MNVP Lead?
I’d like to continue to grow our user involvement of the MNVP service. I would also like to be able to contribute to raising our profile in the area and in particular reach under represented groups throughout the area of York. In the time I have been in post I have built strong relationships with the York and Scarborough trust, enabling a smooth process of feeding back your experiences and being involved from the beginning of improvement projects to ensure the experience of those using the service are being implemented in shaping the service.
Helen McConnell
MNVP Lead
for York and Scarborough
Meet the York and Scarborough MNVP Team
Emma Johnson
Neonatal Engagement Lead
Hi, I'm Emma and I have my own premmie warrior born at 24 weeks so I have lived NICU experience. I have a passion for raising awareness of prematurity and supporting others who find themselves in this unique community. I am a Trustee for York Special Care Baby Unit Support group. I am also a Part-Time Primary School teacher and have recently become the Prem Aware Ambassador for York, raising awareness of the impact prematurity can have on a child's learning and how best to support them.
I am looking forward to working to gather the voices of our service users
Ilayda Gill
Engagement Lead for Scarborough
My name is Ilayda, I am a mum of two, an IBCLC Lactation Consultant and I have been working with pregnant and new families for around five years.
My main interest is in infant feeding, however I am also very passionate about antenatal and birth care, particularly around birth rights, informed choices and hypnobirthing.
I look forward to being an advocate and a voice for parents, and to be part of patient led change to maternity services.
Leonie Eastwood
Engagement Lead for East Riding
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Our meetings are held quarterly and these bring together professionals from maternity and neonatal services, and other organisations who work with women, parents, birthing people and families who use these services. The idea is to inform and guide professionals about individual's experiences of the treatment and care they've received whilst being pregnant, giving birth and their aftercare regarding their health and wellbeing.
You can expect a warm and welcoming environment at our meetings, with updates from maternity staff and group representatives as well as an update on the MNVP's activities, work plan and action tracker.
About our meetings and where you can find us
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Next Meeting: our 2026 meeting dates will be uploaded shortly. Our last meeting was on Tuesday, 7 October 2025
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Venue: in person (venue to be advised) and virtual by MS Teams (please contact hny.lms@nhs.net for the meeting link when the date is confirmed or for any other details).
We are always looking for volunteers to help promote the MNVP group, to gather feedback from other parents who want their voices to be heard or to join our periodic 15 Steps visits etc. Please get in touch.
What we have been up to
Here are a few examples of our recent work and projects to keep you up-to-date about what we have been up to
Surveys
Please give us your feedback through the periodic MNVP surveys we run. You can also view the results from these surveys.
Quarterly Feedback
Please take a few minutes to read the feedback we presented to our last meeting in October 2025
Address
C/o Humber and North Yorkshire
Health Care Partnership,
Local Maternity and Neonatal Service,
Safe Haven (First Floor), Health House,
Grange Park Lane, Willerby, HU10 6DT
