Cross Party Group Details                                  

Cross Party Group Title:

Cross Party Group on Nursing and Midwifery

Group membership and office holders

Name of Group Chair:

Jenny Rathbone MS

Names of other Members of the Senedd:

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS, Jane Dodds MS, Sam Rowlands MS

Name of Secretary and Organisation:

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Wales, Helen Whyley RCN Wales Director 

Names of other external members and organisations represented:

There are no other formal external members. Nursing and midwifery staff and other healthcare professionals, patients and carers may be invited to participate in particular meetings as the topic and Chair directs.   Other meetings of the Group since the last AGM

Date of Meeting:

21 May 2024 (6pm – 7.30pm)

Attendees:

·        Jenny Rathbone, MS (Chair) 

In-person:

 

·         Jenny Rathbone, MS (Chair)

·         Mabon ap Gwynfor MS

·         Sam Rowland MS 

·         Tracey Gauci, Consultant Practitioner Infection Control, Hywel Dda University Health Board 

·         Prof Dr Carolyn Wallace, Director of the Wales School for Social Prescribing Research (WSSPR) 

·         Nicky Hughes, Associate Director of Employment Relations, RCN Wales 

·         Sandy Harding, Associate Director of Nursing Professional Practice, RCN Wales 

·         Lisa Turnbull, Policy, Parliamentary and Public Affairs Manager, RCN Wales 

·         Rebecca Eedy, Midwife at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, RCM Wales 

·         Lynn Jones, Powys Senior Lead Maternity Clinical Informaticist, RCM Wales 

·         Aysima Harper, Policy, Parliamentary and Public Affairs Assistant, RCN Wales 

·         Sion Trewyn, Policy, Parliamentary & Public Affairs Officer, RCN Wales 

 

Online:

 

·         Steve Watson, Vice Chair RCN Wales Board; Ryland Doyle, Office of Mike Hedges MS  

·         Suzanne Hardacre, Director of Midwifery, Gynaecology and Integrated Sexual Health, CTM UHB 

·         Chris Davies, Parkrun & 5k Your Way Ambassador for Wales;

·         Nick Unwin, Campaigns & Public Affairs Officer, RCN Wales

 

Summary of the issues discussed:

Jenny Rathbone, MS welcomed everybody to the CPG on Midwifery and Nursing.  

 

This meeting was held in-person in TŷHywel.  

 

The CPG meeting attendees discussed various topics relation to ‘Fresh Air in are’, including:

· The importance of ventilation in the health care environment

· The impact of poor ventilation on spreading infection and best methods to reduce the risk

· How ventilation has become a priority since COVID-19

· The cognitive risk for healthcare professional making safety critical decisions that is caused by high CO2 levels, which is known to reduce concentration, impacting memory recall and information processing.

· The negative impact of “corridor care” which increases risk of airborne infection

· The variation that exists within the NHS estate and within Health Boards as to how ventilation is assessed or addressed

· The Welsh Health Circular’s 2008 recommendation that each health board develop a specialist negative pressure suite to allow for isolation of airborne infection

·The Impact of climate change – increased temperatures in the summer mean that patients and staff suffer from heat and air quality declines

· Fresh air and social prescribing

· The benefits of social prescribing and how access to fresh air can improve both physical and mental health

· Various types of social prescribing; ‘green’ social prescribing is nature based (e.g. gardening or walks), ‘blue’ social prescribing is water based (e.g. swimming).  

Tracey Gauci, Consultant Practitioner Infection Control, Hywel Dda University Health Board and Prof Dr Carolyn Wallace, Director of the Wales School for Social Prescribing Research (WSSPR) were the two guest speakers for this session.

A complete set of minutes can be viewed on the Senedd website: https://business.senedd.wales/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=15065

Date of Meeting:

21 January 2025

Attendees:

·         Jenny Rathbone MS (Chair)

·         Nia Boughton (guest speaker) – Consultant Nurse for Primary Care (Betsi Cadwaladr UHB) (speaking as an RCN member)

·         Mabon ap Gwynfor MS

·         Julie Richards – Director, Royal College of Midwives

·         Prof Neil James – Consultant Nurse for Learning Disability (Swansea Bay UHB) (speaking as an RCN member)

·         Norman Young – Consultant Nurse and Clinical Service Lead for Early Intervention in Psychosis (Cardiff and Vale UHB) (speaking as an RCN member)

·         Victoria Owens – Chair, Consultant Midwives Cymru

·         Sion Trewyn – Policy, Parliamentary and Public Affairs Officer, RCN Wales

·         Nicholas Unwin – Campaigns and Public Affairs Officer, RCN Wales

·         Aysima Harper – Policy, Parliamentary and Public Affairs Assistant, RCN Wales

Summary of the issues discussed:

·         What consultant nurses and consultant midwives do.

·         The importance of consultant practice as an alternative route for career development rooted in direct care.

·         The importance of consultant nurses and consultant midwives in driving policy, research, audit, governance, and quality assurance.

·         The need for a career pathway for nurses and midwives to become consultant nurses and consultant midwives, respectively.

·         The importance of relational care, prevention and early intervention as approaches to health care, as opposed to focussing on diseased/medicalised pathways only.

·         How Nia Boughton, in her role as a Consultant Nurse for Primary Care at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, established multidisciplinary competency frameworks that are now standardised for all primary care practitioners across Wales.

·         How consultant nurses and consultant midwives support patient participation, connecting with patients so that patient’s voices are heard loud and clear.

·         The important contribution that consultant nurses in primary care make in tackling health inequalities.

·         The variation between each health board in the numbers of consultant nurses employed in the NHS.

·         The historical context for the role of the consultant nurse in Wales; how previous pump priming and research money from Welsh Government has long run out, leaving health boards to fund consultant nurses’ roles from existing budgets.

·         The lack of an established method for arriving at recommended numbers of consultant nurses in specific areas e.g. A&E or frailty, unlike for consultant midwifery.

·         Consultant midwives improve the safety of childbirth and play a crucial role in shaping future health behaviours of families.

·         The need to better consider workforce needs and to explore a commissioning model and development pathway for consultant midwives.

·         How consultant midwives contributed towards the development of the perinatal framework and quality statements and developed a 3-year strategic plan on maternity neonatal support.

 

 

 

·         How Norman Young, Consultant Nurse and Clinical Lead for Early Intervention in Psychosis, co-developed a service in Cardiff and Vale UHB for young people with mental health and processed medical staff in an area that’s difficult to recruit medical staff.

·         The recommendations of the RCN Wales report, Consultant Nurses: Expert Patient Care.

·         The need for a workforce model to be developed for learning disability nurses in Wales so that LD nurses have a career path.

·         How Prof. Neil James is able to contribute towards strategic development, raising the profile of learning disability nursing, and, as the only consultant nurse for LD in Wales, provides a Welsh voice in UK-wide research.

·         The importance of pre-hospital health and of population health

 

 

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Professional lobbyists, voluntary organisations and charities the Group have met during the previous year.

 

Name of Organisation:

The Royal College of Midwives is always invited to attend meetings of the CPG on Nursing and Midwifery. Unless specifically stated otherwise, members (not staff) of the RCN and RCM who attend these meetings do so in a personal capacity and are not representing their employer. In the May 2024 meeting, Prof Dr Carolyn Wallace (from WSSPR) and Chris Davies (from Parkrun & 5k Your Way) attended.

Name of Group:

N/A

Name of Organisation:

(See above)

Name of Group:

NA

 

Annual Financial Statement

Cross Party Group Title:

Cross Party Group on Nursing and Midwifery

Date:

21/01/25

Name of Chair:

Jenny Rathbone MS

Name of Secretary and Organisation:

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Wales, Helen Whyley RCN Wales Director

Title	Description	Amount
Group’s Expenses	None	None
Costs of all goods	None	None
Benefits received by the group or individuals members from external bodies	None	None
Any financial support or other support.	None	None
Total		None

Services provided to the Group, such as hospitality.

All hospitality paid for

Date	Name and description of provider	Costs
21 May 2024 CPG	ESS Hospitality	£264 (total cost, including VAT)
21 January 2025 CPG	ESS Hospitality	£267.30 (total cost, including VAT)
Total		£531.30 (total cost, including VAT)