About the Professional Clinical Midwifery Leadership programme

In 2017, Midwifery supervision changed and the employer-led Advocating and educating for quality improvement (A-EQUIP) model of supervision was launched. The Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA) role was introduced to implement the model.

These elearning sessions were originally designed to support the launch of the A-EQUIP model and were developed in collaboration with NHS England, higher education institutions, the Royal College of Midwives, A-EQUIP pilot sites and other key stakeholders.  They were 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.

In March 2021 NHSE/I introduced Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA) training across England to support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is to sustain an approach to restorative supervision and staff wellbeing, with the aim of improving staff wellbeing and retention, alongside improved patient outcomes.

The A-EQUIP session has been reviewed and revised to accommodate both the PMA and PNA roles. The PMA session has been revised and reviewed to reflect current PMA practice and a new session has been developed to reflect and support the newly developed PNA role.

By completing these elearning sessions, learners will gain a greater understanding of the A-EQUIP model from a conceptual and practical perspective. The elearning will enable learners to embrace and reflect on the opportunities for the future; a model that supports and empowers nurses and midwives to provide safe, high quality, kind, compassionate, care to women, patients, clients and their families.

There’s also an opportunity to self-assess one’s own knowledge and reflect on this throughout the learning through the use of case studies. These highlight how the model can support learners in practice and how it adds value for all healthcare providers.

More information – development of the A-EQUIP model in 2017

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.

Acknowledgements

With grateful thanks to all the members of the original Author, Review and Finish group who devised the initial sessions in 2017:

Dr Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE, Professor of Midwifery (visiting KCL, LSBU), Head of Maternity, Children and Young People, NHS England
Toni Martin, Lead Midwife for Education, Programme Leader – Midwifery, Academic Integrity Tutor, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Worcester
Jessica Read, Deputy Chief Midwifery Officer for England, NHSE/I
Yana Richens OBE, Deputy Head of Maternity Services NHS England, Professional Midwifery Advocate
Sue Hatton, Senior Nursing Policy Manager, Health Education England
Jason Westwood, National Midwifery Supervision Programme Lead – Maternity, Children and Young People, Nursing and Midwifery Team
Carmel Lloyd, Head of Education and Learning, The Royal College of Midwives
Gail Johnson, Professional Advisor Education, The Royal College of Midwives

This programme was originally created in partnership with the Royal College of Midwives

How to access

To view the Professional Clinical Midwifery Leadership 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.

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If you already have an account with e-LfH, then you can enrol on to the Professional Clinical Midwifery Leadership programme by logging in to the e-LfH Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My e-Learning section.

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 Professional Clinical Midwifery Leadership programme, please contact e-LfH 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 e-LfH directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the e-LfH Hub.