MATREP / Get involved / How do NHS staff participate in this study?

How do NHS staff participate in this study?

We will be recruiting NHS staff from 7 NHS maternity services to take part in our study.

These staff members will be approached by their Head of Midwifery, who will provide them with information about our study and how to take part. Participation will include interviews and a survey.

To identify the NHS maternity services that we will be recruiting staff from to take part in our study, we selected services at random that meet the following:

  • Large maternity services (more than 4,000 births a year) and small maternity services (less than 4,000 births a year)
  • NHS Maternity Services within the 7 NHS England regions.

The 7 NHS England regions are:

  • East of England
  • London
  • Midlands
  • North-east and Yorkshire
  • North-west
  • South-east
  • South-west

From this sample, we identified those services that report highest, lowest and average numbers of action planning from maternity incidents.

For more information about how the 7 NHS Maternity services were selected, please email the study team, or read our research protocol, which outlines how our study is designed and delivered in detail.

Download our research protocol (Word)

From these maternity services, the staff that can take part are:

  • NHS staff working in maternity provider services in England who are responsible for the use and monitoring of the HSIB/MNSI investigations and PMRT reviews within that service.
  • NHS staff working in maternity services in England who are responsible for family engagement across the course of HSIB/MNSI investigations or PMRT reviews.
  • Those able to provide informed consent.
  • Those with access to a computer, tablet or mobile phone and with a reliable internet connection.

Staff that cannot take part and why:

  • NHS staff who are currently under warning, suspension, remediation or dismissal procedures by their employers or professional bodies. (If procedures by employers were ongoing, the reliability or the confidential status of the data might be compromised.)
  • NHS staff feel themselves to be too distressed to participate in the study. (In this situation, the costs of research participation to that individual would outweigh the benefits. It is also possible that participant choice may be breached during times of significant distress.)