Caring For You
Best Practice Submission Form
The RCM’s Caring for You Campaign aims to improve RCM members’ health, safety and wellbeing at work so they are able to provide high quality care for women and their families.
The Caring for You Campaign asks NHS organisations to sign up to the RCM’s Caring for You Charter which makes five commitments to improve health, safety and wellbeing.
We want to showcase organisations that have taken action to meet the commitments in the Caring for You Charter - this is your chance to share your organisation’s success as best practice. We hope that sharing good case studies will help other organisations that have similar issues and will inspire other organisations to get involved in the Caring for You Campaign.
You don’t have to wait until you meet every commitment in the Caring for You Charter - you can submit each success story as and when they happen! You can make as many best practice submissions as you like - the more case studies we have to showcase the bigger the difference we can make.
Completed forms and any queries about making a submission of best practice can be emailed to: .
Name of Organisation:
Name of RCM Workplace Representative:
Name of Head of Midwifery:
What health, safety and wellbeing issue did you identify that needed to be improved? Please indicate how the issue affected the staff and the service users.(For example: We identified that our sickness absence rates due to stress were very high. This resulted in many staff missing their breaks and working late because we were frequently short staffed. We also had a high agency spend. Women were reporting that they didn’t have enough time to spend with their midwife and felt they couldn’t ask questions because the midwives were rushed.)
What did you do to tackle this issue?
(For example: When we signed up to the Caring for You Charter we identified stress related sickness as our first action to be tackled. We ordered copies of the RCM’s publication ‘Work-Related Stress’ and followed the advice in the RCM’s booklet. Some of the things we did included a weekly RCM branch meeting for members to come along and talk through things that were troubling them so that they feel supported by their colleagues; a fast track occupational health referral for staff struggling with stress; fixing some of the broken equipment that caused midwives to feel stressed during the day; and the managers making sure they thanked the staff every day for their hard work so they feel valued.)
What improvements for staff and/or women have you seen and how are these being monitored?)
(For example: Our sickness absence rates have improved with fewer midwives on long term absence due to stress. Midwives are reporting that they feel happier at work and there are fewer reports of bullying and undermining behaviours. Because we have fewer staff off work midwives get their break more frequently, this in turn makes them feel less stressed because the break gives them the opportunity to talk to colleagues and ‘switch off’. They also feel less stressed because they have better work-life balance as they are more likely to leave on time. This has resulted in women reporting that they feel more supported by their midwife. Women now say that they feel able to ask their midwife questions because they have enough time with them. This has actually improved the rates of women choosing to breastfeed their baby because they have more time with their midwife and feel more supported. This has been monitored through a staff survey and friends and family survey.)
What advice would you give to other organisations about the Caring for You Campaign?
(For example: This has really made a difference. At first we were a little apprehensive that it would be a lot of work and the things we wanted to change seemed completely out of our reach. When we sat down and developed the action plan it really helped to break down the different issues into bite sized actions. It is surprising how little changes can make a big difference and how the little changes can have a knock on effect on other things that you didn’t expect. The advice we would give to others is sign up to the Caring for You Charter and get started today!)
Please send your completed best practice submission to .