To develop and lead on parent and family engagement initiatives on behalf of the East Midlands Neonatal Operational Delivery Network (EMNODN), ensuring parents and families remain at the centre of service development.
To amplify the parent and family voice whilst supporting the implementation and development of family integrated care, meeting the aims and key deliverables of the Neonatal Critical Care Transformation Review (2019) and the neonatal commitments outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan (2019).
To compassionately listen and seek out the voices of parents and families who have lived experience of neonatal care, including underrepresented communities, and work to break down the barriers preventing these voices from shaping the development of family integrated care in all EMNODN units.
To work innovatively, respectfully, and collaboratively to ensure coproduction mechanisms are in place for all EMNODN improvement projects.
To utilise mixed method research techniques to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of new engagement initiatives across the EMNODN.
Working with parents, families and other stakeholders, you will engage with individuals, groups and organisations with the aim of improving the experience of neonatal services for all parents and families.
You will be responsible for the development, implementation, and management of an engagement strategy. To facilitate and meet these broad aims, the Neonatal Network Parent & Families Engagement Lead is required to work with a wide range of healthcare professionals, multidisciplinary teams, neonatal parents & families and community services.
It is expected that you will make key links with the following to fulfil the key demands of the role and its remit:
Neonatal parents and families
EMNODN Parent Advisory Group (PAG) members
EMNODN Care Coordinators
EMNODN FICare and PPI Lead Nurse
EMNODN core management and leadership team
EMNODN Psychologist and Allied Health Professional team
Full multidisciplinary teams within provider Trusts
Community teams including neonatal/paediatric outreach teams, health visitors etc.
ICB maternity and neonatal focussed groups from within the East Midlands
Community partners, support groups, and national and local charities who serve neonatal families, particularly underrepresented communities
Maternity and neonatal voice partnerships (MNVPs)
Maternity independent senior advocates
Other ODNs and Clinical Networks
Professional organisations as required e.g. BAPM, NNA, RCPCH
NHS England and NHS Improvement
Please submit your application as soon as possible, as we reserve the right to close adverts once sufficient applications have been received.
We recognise that AI tools can support application writing; however, candidates are asked to keep their use to a minimum. Responses should reflect your own experience, skills and knowledge, as over-reliance on AI-generated content may result in generic answers that do not accurately represent your abilities.
University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) brings together Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. As a group, we are committed to improving services for our communities through collaboration, modernising care delivery and striving for excellence. Working together enables us to share expertise, strengthen services and create greater opportunities, and there may be a requirement to work across sites depending on service needs.
Our Excellence Values are Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Integrity and Courage. UHN welcomes applications from all backgrounds and is committed to an inclusive working environment. We are proud signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant and hold the Gold Award under the Employer Recognition Scheme. Candidates who identify as members of the Armed Forces community and meet the essential criteria will be guaranteed an interview.
Facilitate collaborative discussions and work streams between neonatal units, supporting development and improvement to the provision of neonatal care across the EMNODN by presenting complex or sensitive information and facilitating discussion.
Build strong working relationships with the ICB maternity and neonatal focussed groups from within the East Midlands
To ensure that the outputs of the role are understood and supported at their level, in line with LMNS work plans and remit, including any relevant deliverables for them from the Neonatal Critical Care Transformation Review.
Work with existing parent/family support groups acting as a key link and resource across the Network to ensure parental views and advice are embedded into neonatal care. Linking with other relevant patient groups, such as, Maternity & Neonatal Voice Partners (MNVPs).
Utilise relevant data sources, such as the neonatal GIRFT (“Getting It Right First Time”) quality improvement programme and Quality Surveillance Team peer review to benchmark the available accommodation, facilities, resources and support available to parents and families during their baby’s inpatient care episodes across the Network and identify possible improvements required.
Signpost parents and families to existing appropriate parent support facilities.
Establish links to a wide range of health care professionals, charities and organisations with a remit for parental support, particularly those supporting underrepresented communities.
Play a key and active role at regional level, providing regular reports and updates to the Neonatal ODN Core Team and Membership Groups on agreed priorities and remit of the role.
Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive and potentially contentious information e.g. parental service feedback; preparing the information for presentation and sharing across large stakeholder groups.
The role will involve a significant amount of planning and organising a broad range of complex programmes and initiatives and adjusting plans/programmes/initiatives including facilitating collaborative working with a wide range of stakeholders and parent and family representatives.
Develop and monitor engagement initiatives which will require sound analytical judgements involving complex facts or situations, interpretation, and comparison of a range of options to achieve the goals of the initiatives. This will be especially apparent when identifying inequalities and refining initiatives and programmes to address such inequalities ensuring positive and measurable impacts on service development and patient care.
Identify, assess and manage priorities and risks associated with wider stakeholder engagement including the development of alternative or contingency plans which manage conflicting priorities between stakeholders and in particular differing expectations of parents and families.
Be capable of prioritising competing demands, work to specific timescales and meet work stream programme objectives.
Have excellent organisational skills, to plan, co-ordinate and facilitate delivery of the engagement strategy initiatives including monitoring and reporting requirements.
Develop and implement a range of approaches which will enable parents and families (including underrepresented communities) to proactively engage with the work of the ODN including the planning of services, integration of engagement with service changes and working with partner organisations including Bliss and third-party sector across the region.
Lead on regular monitoring of engagement initiatives to evaluate whether ‘fit for purpose’ and impact as intended.
Gather views and experiences to identify issues and collaborate with all stakeholders to propose and implement effective solutions.
Analyse parent and family engagement outputs being both qualitative and quantitative data, drawing conclusions and sharing the results with appropriate stakeholders.
Work collaboratively with key partners and communities to implement service improvement, policy, guidelines and standard operating procedures.
Provide a ‘critical friend’ facility that can review various proposals (in a variety of forms) to ensure that a culture of co-production is developed and maintained.
Develop and implement an effective engagement strategy which will swiftly bridge the gap in engagement utilising trusted methodologies and key groups in the region.
Responsible for identifying national initiatives and policies for implementation and dissemination across the EMNODN region.
Identifying and managing the maintenance of new and existing policies and guidelines in line with role.
Co-ordinate regular engagement and focus groups to ensure key priority messages are shared with parents and families in a timely manner and share feedback including specific experiences of using services with any data to support discussions and decisions.
Develop effective information gathering and reporting systems and processes which will gather qualitative information about the lived experiences of parents and families in relations to neonatal services which will lead to effective change to support and meet their needs.
Ensure the voices, experiences and insights gathered inform the priorities and actions contained within the Neonatal Critical Care Transformation Review (NCCTR) recommendations and implementation plans.
Support parents and families to be empowered and understand their rights and responsibilities.
Maintain professional knowledge through regularly partaking in research, developing complex audits within work programme and provide support to the wider ODN work programme in the development of regional and national surveys.
Collaborate with other members of the EMNODN team, neonatal service providers and parents to explore and allocate available funding to enhance and improve the parent and family experience.
Initiate links with relevant local and national charities to explore further opportunities to maximise these improvements, facilitating national networks.
The post holder will work collaboratively with the Network senior management team to draw up budget plans for the programme of work and plan and deliver engagement events within the agreed budget.
Provide leadership and mentorship to individual professionals within the EMNODN to support with local engagement strategies.
Manage and promote a culture that values all service users and staff recognising and acknowledging achievement and success whilst actively addressing poor performance.
The post holder will be a key and core member of the ODN team and facilitate provision of relevant family feedback to the Network Board, attending appropriate meetings as required and commensurate with the role and remit
Attends appropriate national and regional neonatal meetings as required by the role and remit and as invited.
Liaises with care coordinators and other Parent and Family Engagement Leads (PFELs) across England to develop a suitable group with agreed terms of reference, aims and objectives and appropriate links to other established ODN groups.
Undertakes ODN-wide evaluation on family integrated care and the effectiveness of the post (including but not limited to parent/family and staff feedback) to help better develop the future direction of the post to make it more responsive to need.
The post holder will be a self-motivated, enthusiastic, and informed educator, able to work autonomously. They will be an excellent communicator, with good interpersonal skills, able to successfully interact with multidisciplinary teams.
An understanding of national education frameworks is important, and how these relate to neonatal and maternity staff. The post holder will possess the skills, knowledge and attributes outlined in the person specification.
This job description and person specification are an outline of the tasks, responsibility and outcomes required of the role. The job holder will carry out any other duties that may reasonably be required by their line manager.
This job description and person specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of the EMNODN and neonatal landscape.
Predominantly desk based requiring long periods of concentration, and good keyboard skills.
Responsive to the unpredictable needs of parents and regional work plan.
Some in person workshops and events involving light physical effort.
Extensive travel, mainly within the East Midlands region although travel may be required outside of the region.
Exposure to emotional and potentially distressing stories from families about experience of neonatal services
