About the Midwifery Supervision programme
Midwifery supervision has changed: A-EQUIP – Advocating and educating for quality improvement.
To support this change, an elearning programme has been developed in collaboration with NHS England, higher education institutions, the Royal College of Midwives, A-EQUIP pilot sites and other key stakeholders. This elearning session, supporting the A-EQUIP model, is both important and timely. It’s designed to provide further information and links into the A-EQUIP Operational Guidance for midwives, leaders, managers, maternity providers, commissioners and higher education institutions requiring NHS maternity services to have the A-EQUIP model in place.
This elearning session will enable you to gain a greater understanding by exploring the A-EQUIP model from a conceptual and practical perspective. The elearning will enable you to embrace and reflect on the opportunities for the future; a model that supports and empowers midwives to provide safe, high quality, kind, compassionate, care to women and their families. There’s also an opportunity to self-assess your knowledge and reflect on this throughout the session through the use of case studies. The session highlights how the model can support you in practice and how it adds value for providers of maternity services.
More information
As a result of legislative change prompted by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO 2013) report and the Kirkup Report, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Department of Health, the function of Local Supervising Authorities and statutory supervision of midwifery was removed on 31 March 2017.
The new employer-led model of midwifery supervision, developed by the National Local Supervising Authority taskforce, is termed A-EQUIP: an acronym for “advocating and educating for quality improvement”. The A-EQUIP model is made up of four distinct functions:
- Normative
- Restorative
- Personal action for quality improvement
- Education and development.
The role and title Supervisor of Midwives is no longer statutory and has been replaced with a new title and role – Professional Midwifery Advocate.
Project team
Dr Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE
Professor of Midwifery (visiting KCL, LSBU), Head of Maternity, Children and Young People, NHS England
Sue Hatton
Senior Nursing Policy Manager, Health Education England
Toni Martin
Lead Midwife for Education, Programme Leader – Midwifery, Academic Integrity Tutor, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Worcester
Jason Westwood
National Midwifery Supervision Programme Lead - Maternity, Children and Young People, Nursing and Midwifery Team
Jessica Read
Regional Maternity Lead for London, NHS England, London Region
Carmel Lloyd
Head of Education and Learning, The Royal College of Midwives
Yana Richens OBE
Deputy Head of Maternity Services NHS England, Professional Midwifery Advocate
Gail Johnson
Professional Advisor Education, The Royal College of Midwives
Neha Baj
Content Development Lead, HEE elearning for healthcare
Simon Blackmore
Learning Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
How to access
In order to access the Midwifery Supervision programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the Midwifery Supervision programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
NHS healthcare staff in England
The Midwifery Supervision programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Midwifery Supervision programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.