Humber and North Yorkshire Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnerships (MNVP)

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Welcome from Katie Jones, MNVP Group Lead

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Hello, I'm Katie and I'm so pleased you’ve come across our website. The MNVP teams and I are here to represent 

you, listen to your experience and share it with NHS professionals to both improve services and share successes.

So yes we want your good and bad stories!

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About my role as Humber and North Yorkshire MNVP Group Lead

My role is to co-ordinate the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnerships (MNVP) across our local system.  Before I

was involved with the MNVPs, I had never heard of the Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS). This system

networks the maternity and neonatal services across the region of the Humber and North Yorkshire covering Goole,

Grimsby, Harrogate, Hull, Scarborough, Scunthorpe and York. I get the pleasure of working with the local MNVP Leads for

Harrogate, Hull and East Riding, North and North East Lincolnshire, and York and Scarborough to facilitate shared

learning and group projects so that we can offer an equitable service across our region no matter where you choose to

have your maternity care.  I also work with the Parent and Family Engagement Lead and our local MNVP Neonatal Leads to

input into the family experience of neonatal care and create some fabulous resources to help people navigate what can be a difficult time on the neonatal ward.

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Personal life

I applied for this role shortly after having my second child. My son arrived at two weeks past his due date, so you can imagine I spent quite a lot of time in and out of the hospital towards the end of my pregnancy, I got to know my midwife quite well and when I returned after his birth to have his tongue tie snipped I bumped into this member of staff unexpectedly and she suggested I took a look at the vacancy for this role.  I'm so glad she encouraged me as it's been the most rewarding work that I've done. It’s a privilege to listen to families and I don’t underestimate the courage it can take to re-live and share such a vulnerable experience as your birth story. I am then able to translate this lived experiences in actions and projects to work alongside the staff at the hospital Trusts to see tangible improvements for service users, students and staff.

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Prior to this role I was on the general management team for a local charity, ensuring the operational systems were in place and overseeing the running of the food bank.  ​I studied Law at Hull University with a desire to help people and, in a way, this compliments my MNVP role as I consider myself to be a maternity advocate, representing the service user voice for change and better outcomes.

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My daughter and son are great motivators - knowing I can have some influence on how they might experience starting a family one day and making sure it’s a safe, kind and empowering environment.

 

Favourite projects

The MNVP teams regularly host 15 Steps events at their local Trusts and these have very quickly become my favourite days to be a part of. A parent once said  “I can tell what kind of care my daughter is going to get within 15 steps of walking on to the ward”.  The MNVP 15 Steps events invite service users, stakeholders and MNVP representatives to have an opportunity to visit the wards and consider how it feels: Welcoming & informative? Friendly & personal? Organised & calm? Safe & clean? We then collate this feedback into a report for the hospital and an action plan is created to make adjustments and improvements. Sometimes the smallest thing can make someone feel welcomed and safe.

 

Current projects

Some of the projects we are currently working on are:

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• 6-8 weeks Postnatal GP Check – after receiving feedback from across the system that these appointments were not meeting your needs we conducted a survey in January 2025 and we had an amazing 352 responses. This data has been summarised into a presentation and it is being shared across various primary and secondary care NHS teams to try and improve these appointments and address some of the issues.

• Birth Infographics – the Ask A Midwife team has been regularly posting the monthly birth infographics on the Trust social media pages. The MNVPs coproduced the original design with a seasonal theme which has been very popular but we recognise this now needs updating to reflect the data that service users need to make an informed choice on where to access their maternity care. We are hoping to publish our updated design very soon.

• Partner Project – we have been running a short term project to improve the experience of birth partners during the maternity and postnatal journey. The Partner Project Lead has been out and about speaking to birth partners to hear their experiences and conducted a survey to hear from a wider range of people. The feedback has been that many partners don’t know how to support during labour so we have commissioned some postcards to be designed and kept on the labour ward to provide prompts and information for birth partners. We have also started discussions on how to extend overnight access to partners in some of our Trusts and to do so safely for all birthing people and staff. This may involve a partner agreement or guidelines which will be co-produced with recent birth partners.

• Home Birth Group - my second birth was planned as a home birth so I was particularly excited to be asked to help set up the Northern Lincolnshire Home Birth Group. The MNVP always aims to promote choice and personalised care, and creating a space for families to meet with staff and community midwives to consider the option of home birth has been wonderful to facilitate. The first meeting was a great success with one family who attended going on to have a home birth. These meetings will be running every other month in different locations so please join us if you'd like some more information or just wish to listen and pick up some resources.

 

The MNVP as a Partnership

Although you're getting to know me on this page, my MNVP colleagues also have profiles to view on this site.  We all see the MNVPs very much as a PARTNERSHIP with our members and we are always looking for people to join. How much you commit to it is completely optional but a great starting place is to contact your local MNVP and they will send out details of events or opportunities to get involved.