Dear colleague,

Following on from communication issued on Wednesday 12 August 2020, this is an update on year three of the maternity incentive scheme (MIS). While the reporting requirements were paused, trusts were asked to continue to apply the principles of the 10 safety actions, given that the aim of the MIS is to support the delivery of safer maternity care.

Update:

The current plan is to relaunch the scheme on Thursday 1 October 2020.

The MIS safety actions, the timeframe for submission and revised board declaration form are currently being reviewed by members of the Collaborative Advisory Group and will be shared with trusts in the forthcoming weeks.

Some information on the timescales for safety action two is included in this update.

General

• The review/submission dates for the year three maternity safety actions initially planned from March 2020 onwards are being revised and will be updated. As there have been specific requests from trusts regarding training requirements, we are providing early indications for training within this document.
• The timeline for the MIS will also be revised and the submission date for the board declaration form will be deferred to 2021 (submission date TBC).
• The trust declarations will be required to be submitted six months after the launch date of the scheme.
• There will be additional elements within some safety actions to ensure that learning from important, emerging Covid-19 themes is rapidly implemented by maternity services. In particular, safety action eight has been affected by Covid-19 (see below).
• If contact details have changed for your nominated MIS lead please update them.
• For any queries related to the MIS please contact MIS@resolution.nhs.uk

Finance

• We plan to operate the financial arrangements on the same basis as before, i.e. to uplift the maternity element of contributions by 10% with a view to returning all of those funds to the trusts that meet all of the ten maternity safety actions. Trusts that have not achieved all ten safety actions may be eligible for a small amount of funding to support progress. The maternity contribution will collected in the financial year starting in April 2021.

Safety action two – maternity service data set

• Item 2 on webinar attendance was completed by all trusts in early 2020.
• Item 3 around trust conformance with the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS)v2 (MSDSv2) Information Standards Notice DCB1513 And10/2018, which was expected for April 2019 data, will now be reported to NHS Resolution. Timescales and detail will be given in the main announcement on the MIS, including the ability to declare that a plan is in place to complete the work.
• In March 2020, NHS Digital explained that the element of item 3 relating to a post-implementation questionnaire would no longer be part of safety action two. NHS Digital has since closed the questionnaire submission portal.
• Items 5-13 were due to be assessed on MSDS data for April 2020 and May 2020. The assessment will now be made on data for December 2020, submitted to NHS Digital for the 28 February 2021 deadline.
• The mailbox for any queries on items 1-13 of safety action two remains maternity.dq@nhs.net
• Item 14 on the Maternity Record Standard has been removed from action two and will be progressed separately by NHSX. NHS Digital announced on 1 April 2020 that the Digital Maternity Record Standard (DMRS) compliance date had been delayed from Monday 30 November 2020 to Sunday 28 February 2021. For any queries related to the maternity record standard, please email england.digitalmaternitynhsx@nhs.net 

Safety action six – saving babies lives care bundle (SBLCB)

• During the Covid-19 pandemic it has been difficult to implement some elements of SBLCB and in particular element one as carbon monoxide testing has been suspended. Compliance with element 1 will therefore require an audit based on the percentage of women asked whether they smoke at booking and at 36 weeks gestation if carbon monoxide testing has not been reinstated.

Safety action eight – multi-disciplinary training

• NHS Resolution appreciates that local face to face, multi-professional training has not been possible during the emergency response due to Covid-19. When it is possible to resume training, social distancing/Covid-19 precautions will still affect the ability of units to provide face-to face-training.
• As an interim arrangement, we are planning to amend the requirements of Safety Action eight, as we recognise that traditional ‘hands-on’ drills and skills/in situ simulations may not be possible or practical for the immediate future.
• The interim arrangements will include local multidisciplinary training being provided as a local, half-day virtual/on-line training package as an alternative option for local MIS training requirements.
• A training package and suite of resources that will meet the requirements of safety action eight will available to assist trusts in providing their local half-day on-line training. We will provide more information on the content of this local on-line training and signposting for possible resources in the next few weeks.
• If any ‘hands-on’ training is undertaken, or training is held in one room, as with clinical work, teams should follow the current guidance in relation to infection prevention control procedures, social distancing and personal protective equipment requirements, to ensure staff safety.

Yours faithfully,

NHS Resolution MIS team

The NHS Litigation Authority is the operating name of NHS Resolution. Our services have a shared goal of reaching a resolution, whether that is around a claim, a concern about performance or a dispute between an NHS contractor and provider.

Our main services are: Claims Management providing indemnity schemes for the NHS in England and resolving compensation claims fairly; Practitioner Performance Advice (formerly National Clinical Assessment Service) resolving concerns about the performance of individual practitioners and Primary Care Appeals (formerly Family Health Services Appeal Unit) ensuring the prompt and fair resolution of appeals and disputes between primary care contractors and NHS England).