Safe Staffing Guidelines - Safe Midwifery Staffing for Maternity Settings: consultation on draft scope

NICE have been asked by the Department of Health and NHS England to produce guidelines on safe staffing in the NHS, and Maternity Settings is one of a number of topics that NICE is currently undertaking. NICE has been asked to conduct a review of available evidence in maternity settings and produce guidelines on safe staffing to support local decisions at ward and organization level. A draft scope for maternity settings has been developed to define the parameters of the work that will be undertaken in this area and a stakeholder consultation for comments on this draft scope is now underway. The consultation period will end at 5pm on the 28 March 2014.

Registered stakeholders for the safe staffing topics are invited to submit comments on the draft maternity settings scope. Individuals and organisations who have not registered as stakeholders are not able to comment during the consultation. If you are interested in submitting comments during the consultation please either register as a stakeholder or contact a registered stakeholder organisation that closely represents your interests and pass your comments to them. Further information about the stakeholders and stakeholder registration process can be found below:

• Safe staffing web page
• Stakeholder registration

Consultation dates: 28 February 2014 to 28 March 2014 (5pm)

Consultation documents

• Safe Midwifery Staffing for Maternity settings - draft scope

Please note - this scope is provisional and may change after consultation with stakeholders.

General points to consider in the consultation

• Style and format. Could the information be easier to read and follow?
• Whether the scope adequately covers: safety issues, and people's experience of using services.
• Whether the pilot scope could be changed to better promote equity relating to age, disability, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation or socio-economic status. In answering this question, please include details of:
  • which particular parts of the pilot scope for Safe Midwifery Staffing for Maternity Settings you think affect equity of what the resulting guideline will cover
  • why and how you think equity is affected.

How to submit your comments

Please provide all responses to the draft scope using the comments proforma (ensuring all relevant fields are completed, including your organisation's full name) and forward this electronically by 5pm on the 28 March 2014 at the very latest to this email address: SafeStaffingSH@nice.org.uk

NICE is unable to accept

• Comments from non-registered organisations - if you wish your comments to be considered please register via the NICE website
• Comments from individuals - please contact the registered stakeholder organisation that most closely represents your interests and pass your comments to them.
• Comments received after the consultation deadline (5pm)
• Comments that are not on the correct proforma
• More than one completed comments proforma per stakeholder organisation
• Confidential information or other material that you would not wish to be made public
• Personal medical information about yourself or another person from which your or the person's identity could be ascertained

What will happen to your comments

All eligible comments received during the consultation will be reviewed by the Safe Staffing Team and the scope will be refined in line with the Safe Staffing Team's considerations.

NICE reserves the right to summarise and edit comments received during consultations, or not to publish them at all, where in the reasonable opinion of NICE, the comments are voluminous, publication would be unlawful or publication would be otherwise inappropriate.

Acknowledgement of comments

If required, please contact the Safe Staffing Team Project Manager to ensure your comments have been safely received by emailing amanda.chandler@nice.org.uk.

Comments received in the course of consultations carried out by NICE are published in the interests of openness and transparency. The comments are published as a record of the submissions that NICE has received, and are not endorsed by NICE, its officers or advisory committees.

Email enquiries

If you have any queries please email SafeStaffingSH@nice.org.uk