Accessible information: Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocacy Pilot

Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocates help ensure that the voices of women and families are listened to, heard, and acted upon by their care providers when they have experienced an adverse outcome during their maternity and/or neonatal care.

How can a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate support me?

If you have experienced an adverse outcome during your maternity or neonatal care in Mid and South Essex, either recently or some time ago, you can contact your MNISA for help.

Recent reports and enquiries into maternity and neonatal care identify a range of adverse outcomes that can occur during care.

During the initial pilot phase, the MNISA will be able to support you if you’ve experiences any of the following outcomes:

Your baby has died before they were born, after 24 weeks of pregnancy
Your baby has died in the days or first four weeks after they were born
Your baby was diagnosed with a brain injury or a brain injury was suspected
The baby’s mother has died
You had an unexpected or unplanned removal of your womb (within 6 weeks of giving birth)
You had an unexpected admission to the critical or intensive care unit (within 6 weeks of giving birth)

If you have experienced any of these outcomes, your advocate is here for you and your family and can help and support you to be listened to and heard by your maternity and neonatal care providers, and can

attend meetings with you
help you to understand what happened
support you through investigation and complaints processes.

You don’t need to be sure if there were mistakes or negligence in the care to ask for support, if the advocate is not best placed to support you as part of their role, they will signpost you to other support services.

How are they independent?

Your MNISA is an independent from the Trust that provided your care. They report to the local Integrated Care Board, which is responsible for the provision of all care in your area.

Everything you say to your MNISA is confidential, unless you ask or agree to them sharing it with others. The only exceptions to this is if they have a safeguarding concern about you or your family’s welfare, or if there is an overriding public interest.

What happens at the end of the pilot?

If your case is still ongoing at the end of the pilot scheme, a follow up support plan will be discussed with you. If you have a complaint about your MNISA, visit:

Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System contact page