Royal College of Midwives calls for Health Secretary Steve Barclay to meet maternity staff face-to-face

The call comes a day after a ballot for industrial action among midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs) revealed members of the union in Wales will strike, but the vote in England fell short of the government-imposed turnout threshold. More than nine out of 10 (94.1%) midwives and MSWs voted to take industrial action in England, but despite this number passing the required 40% to take action, turnout was just below the 50% threshold demanded by legislation.

In an open letter to Barclay, RCM General Secretary Gill Walton outlined the challenges facing maternity services and explained the RCM’s determination to be part of the solution. Ms Walton wrote: “We are entirely focused on what it takes to deliver safe maternity care and we are committed to your manifesto promise to make the UK the best place in the world to give birth. We are saddened that none of your predecessors since Jeremy Hunt has found time to meet with us and discuss what it takes to improve maternity care. We wonder whether this indicates the regard in which the Government holds midwives and midwifery?”

She said midwives and MSWs are “at their wits’ end” and that many of them are already leaving the service. Staff are feeling “undervalued and taken for granted”, and a pay award of just 4% for most midwives has “done nothing to halt this”, she added.

Ms Walton noted that getting close to threshold in England “will be deeply frustrating” for many of the union’s members, but that “it is absolutely not the end of our fight to get a decent deal for midwives and MSWs”. She added: “That is why I am inviting Steve Barclay to join me in any maternity service in the country, wherever he chooses.”

She said the Health Secretary “needs to hear direct from dedicated midwives and maternity support workers who are skipping breaks and working way beyond their hours, often without being paid, to provide the care that women and babies need”.

“He needs to see beyond the statistics to meet the people the impact of a lack of any action by him and his predecessors really means,” Ms Walton added.

The open letter added: “Our door is always open to discuss safety, pay and additional retention measures. The RCM is ready, at any time, to discuss this issue with you and your government. We think it would be really helpful to bring midwives from the front line to meet you, so that you can hear first hand their experience of working in short-staffed units, of the financial hardship many are now facing and the reasons they see their colleagues walking away from the profession they love.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We hugely value the hard work of midwives and it is good news for patients that RCM members have not voted for industrial action. We are supporting them during these challenging times by giving over one million NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year, as recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body.

“This is a pay rise of 9.3% for the lowest earners, on top of a 3% pay increase last year when public sector pay was frozen, and is in addition to wider government support with the cost of living.”