PURPOSE:
The purpose of the presentation is to describe the development of a new national Quality Statement for maternity and neonatal services setting out ‘what good looks like’. It will describe other key measures to ensure a total quality management system is in place to support quality delivery and aid continuous improvement, delivering the best care to women, birthing people and families.

DISCUSSION:
The Quality Statement along with the perinatal engagement framework are intended to continue the ambition to drive forward the previous ‘Maternity Care in Wales – A Five-Year Vision for the Future’ key principles: family centred, safe and effective, continuity of carer, skilled multi-professional teams and a sustainable quality service. It supports improvements in each unit, focusing on high quality care delivering optimal outcomes for women, babies and their families and reducing inequalities experienced by individuals from ethnic minority and other marginalised groups. To enable triangulation and assurance of data outcomes, the Quality statement included a perinatal engagement framework to ensure all voices are heard. Supporting actions include a Strategic perinatal workforce plan and digital maternity records to be in every health board by March 2026.

EVIDENCE WHERE RELEVANT:
A national safety support programme has been implemented following extensive work and recommendations to identify what needs improving and to scale up best practice. ‘Improving Together for Wales’, the Discovery report highlighted persistent inequalities in the quality of services, in addition to the outcomes and experiences of women, babies and their families. This is also evidenced in many reviews of maternity services and national MBRRACE data.

KEY MESSAGE:
Policy design of services is not just one document but a whole system setting out what good looks like, providing resources and information on how to achieve it and having mechanisms to monitor and evaluate both outcome and experience data. Quality improvement