West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) now hosts a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate as part of an NHS England pilot which aims to listen to and support women and families in a new way when there has been serious harm. This might include where there has been a death or significant injury following maternity or neonatal care.
What is a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate?
The Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate (also referred to as Maternity and Neonatal ISA or MNISA) is a new senior role being piloted to support women and families in England. This follows the immediate and essential actions identified in the Ockenden review into maternity care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital.
This role was developed by NHS England working alongside people who have experienced adverse outcomes and NHS staff.
The advocate is separate from the hospitals that provided the care and this means that people can be supported to raise challenges about their care in a way that is independent of hospital-based structures and procedures.
Maternity and Neonatal Independant Senior Advocates help ensure the voices of women and families are listened to, heard and acted upon by their maternity and neonatal care providers when they have experienced an adverse outcome during their maternity and/or neonatal care.
If during your maternity or neonatal care in West Yorkshire or Harrogate you have experienced an adverse outcome you can go to a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate for support, whether this is something that happened recently or some time ago.
Further resources available include:
During the initial pilot phase the Maternity and Neonatal ISA will support you if you have experienced any of the following adverse outcomes:
• Your baby has died after 24 weeks of your pregnancy and before birth (was stillborn).
• Your baby has died within 28 days of birth.
• Your baby was diagnosed with a brain injury or a brain injury was suspected. This includes HIE (hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy).
• You had an unexpected or unplanned removal of your womb (hysterectomy) within 6 weeks of giving birth.
• You had an unexpected admission to the critical or intensive care unit.
• The baby’s mother has died within a year of giving birth.
If something went wrong in your maternity or neonatal care within West Yorkshire and Harrogate, you can go to the Maternity and Neonatal ISA for help.
If you have experienced any of these outcomes, your advocate is here for you and your family and can:
- • help and support you and your family to be listened to and heard by your maternity and neonatal care providers.
- • attend meetings with you and advocate for you if you wish; these may be meetings with the hospital trust or where there are further investigations.
- • support you through the maternity and neonatal healthcare system to help you understand what happened in your care.
- • support you throughout any investigation and complaints processes.
- • make referrals for further support if needed (such as therapeutic services)
You do not need to be sure if there were mistakes or negligence in the mother or baby’s care to ask for support. If your Maternity and Neonatal ISA is not best placed to support you as part of their role, they will tell you about other support services available.
A Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate may not be best placed to help you if:
- • all your avenues of investigation or complaint have been concluded
- • your concerns are solely about your birth choices rather than from an adverse outcome
- • you have any general queries related to maternity and neonatal services.
If this is the case, the Maternity and Neonatal ISA will be able to signpost you to other services that may be more helpful.
The Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate for West Yorkshire and Harrogate is 
Rhona Mulvihill.
“I am passionate about supporting people and making a difference in the lives of those I work with. I have many years of front-line experience, supporting and advocating on behalf of others in various public sectors such as education, criminal justice and charity as well as managerial experience. I have gained valuable knowledge and experience of maternity services through my work as the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MVNP) Lead for my local area and being a service user”.
Rhona will sit alongside you to make sure you feel listened to and heard by those who have provided your care.
If Rhona is absent for any reason, one of her team may help her by checking if there are messages that need a response. They will follow the same rules as Rhona around sharing your information.
Contacting or using a Maternity and Neonatal ISA is free. There is no charge for any support given, and interpreters can be made available if you need one. You can contact your advocate by phone, email or filling out the form.
- Telephone: 07811581730
- Email: wyicb-wak.
wyhmnisa @nhs.net - Click here to fill in an online referral form
You can also ask any healthcare worker involved in your maternity or neonatal care to get the Maternity and Neonatal ISA to contact you.
You don’t have to use a Maternity and Neonatal ISA if you do not want to, and you can stop their involvement at any time without giving a reason.
A Maternity and Neonatal ISA is independent from the trust that provided your care. This means that the ISA does not and hasn’t worked for any of the hospitals in West Yorkshire so families can be confident that they are fair and impartial. They report to the local Integrated Care Board (ICB), who are responsible for the provision of all care in your area.
Everything you say to your Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate is confidential unless you ask or agree with them to share it with others. The only exception to this is if they are worried about yours or your families safety. If this is the case then this would be discussed with you first.
If the Maternity and Neonatal ISA is on leave, one of the team may help by checking if there are messages that need a response. This person will follow the same rules as the Maternity and Neonatal ISA around sharing your information.
The pilot is due to end in March 2025. At the end of the pilot, if your case is still ongoing, a follow up support plan will be discussed with you.
As this is a pilot scheme, there are currently no alternate Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocates, if you do not feel that your advocate is the right person for you.
However, if you have a complaint about your Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate then you can contact West Yorkshire ICB patient experience team at: westyorkshireics.