Patient safety

Maternity and neonatal safety

The Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) Patient Safety Collaborative works in partnership with maternity and neonatal providers across Kent, Surrey and Sussex to support the delivery of national maternity and neonatal patient safety improvement programmes aimed at improving outcomes and experiences for women, babies and families.

Our current maternity and neonatal safety improvement programmes focus on:

Optimisation and stabilisation of the preterm infant

Early recognition and management of deterioration in women and babies through MEWS2 and NEWTT2

The Avoiding Brain Injuries in Childbirth (ABC) Programme, including Intrapartum Fetal Deterioration (IFD) and Impacted Fetal Head (IFH)

This work aims to strengthen the recognition and response to maternal, fetal and neonatal deterioration, support safer multidisciplinary working, reduce unwarranted variation, and improve the quality and safety of care across maternity and neonatal services.

Programme goals

To improve the optimisation and stabilisation of the preterm infant

PREM7+ is a project aimed at improving the effectiveness of the preterm optimisation pathway. It comprises nine-evidence based interventions that look to reduce the variability of care across regions with expected outcomes being:

Reduction in brain injury
Reduction in incidents of necrotising enterocolitis.
Reduction in bronchopulmonary dysplasia.
Reduction in cerebral palsy
Reduction in morbidity and mortality.

To improve early recognition and management of deterioration in women and babies

MatNeoSIP supports the implementation of Maternal Early Warning Score (MEWS) and Newborn Early Warning Track and Trigger National Tool (NEWTT2), a British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) tool. Both are designed to improve the Prevention, Identification, Escalation, and Response (PIER) to maternal and newborn deterioration.

To introduce the Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth (ABC) programme

The Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth (ABC) programme is a national maternity safety programme that helps hospitals provide the safest possible care for maternity users and babies during labour and birth.

The programme helps maternity teams to recognise early signs that extra care or support may be needed, and to respond quickly and effectively. It also focuses on improving communication, teamwork, and the use of high-quality training.

The ABC programme is guided by national learning from reviews of maternity and newborn care, including MBRRACE-UK, and is supported by commissioners and professional organisations such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to help ensure services meet national safety and quality standards.

Across Kent, Surrey and Sussex, we are helping to provide maternity staff with specialist training and ongoing support to deliver consistent, compassionate, and high-quality care for families.

Working in partnership with

Nine maternity and neonatal provider trusts
NHS England regional maternity and neonatal teams
The KSS Operational Delivery Network for Neonates (ODN)
Clinical faculty and subject matter experts
Regional maternity and neonatal clinical networks and operational groups
Maternity and neonatal voices partnerships (MNVPs)
Women, families and patient advisory groups
Regional quality improvement, digital and patient safety teams

News and case studies

Contact us

If you’d like to find out more about maternity and neonatal or any of our other patient safety programmes, get in touch.

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