Maternity Social Prescriber - East Bedford PCN

Tender description

Description The EDG Board approved £52,000 to fund a specialist maternity social prescriber working at two of the four PCNs in Bedford Borough. East Bedford PCN and Caritas Medical PCN cover roughly half the borough of Bedford, including areas with higher density populations from the target groups. The role will work with pregnant women and new mothers from minority ethnic communities who live in areas of deprivation and are at higher risk of poor outcomes. Background: mothers from ethnic minority communities are at a higher risk of adverse outcomes due to late initiation of antenatal care and underutilisation of antenatal care services, which doubles the risk of severe antenatal morbidities. Underutilisation or late initiation of antenatal care services in pregnancy is almost six times higher in people from a Black ethnic background and almost four times higher in other ethnic minorities. Babies born to mothers from various ethnic minority communities, residing in most deprived areas in the UK had 47-129% greater risk of adverse birth outcomes compared to White British women. The maternity social prescriber has been in place for several years, this programme will see the prescriber working with a wider cohort of women, and into the early months of parenthood. The areas covered by the two PCNs coincides with areas of highest deprivation in the town – 5 of the 8 Practices are designated as “Deep End” with deprivation scores higher than 30. Women in areas of highest deprivation are 2.5 times more likely to die in childbirth. The post will promote take up of infant immunisations, link the mother to support and activities in the local community as well support post-natal checks, contraception choices, take up of screening services such as cervical smears and provide preparation for future pregnancies. Learning from this project will be shared across all 4 PCNs to upskill the wider social prescribing team working with pregnant women; the role will work closely with midwifery and health visiting services to ensure a joined up approach; and a strong evidence base will be formalised which will link into the wider INW programme.