Date published: 16 August 2024
The Cheshire and Merseyside Specialist Perinatal Service has been awarded the prestigious Perinatal Quality Network Accreditation (PQN) from the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP).
One in five women and birthing people experience mental health problems during pregnancy or in the first year after birth. The Cheshire and Merseyside Specialist Perinatal Service provides important mental health assessment and support for local women and birthing people, who are experiencing moderate to severe mental health issues during this time.
The team were awarded the nationally recognised accreditation after firstly completing an internal review where they rated their practices against the quality standards which included collecting feedback from patients, partners and family members and staff via questionnaires.
Once the team had considered the feedback, they were given an accreditation review, which examines their performance against the RCP standards and includes interviews with patients, partners and family members, partner agencies and frontline staff.
Annie Kelly, Clinical Service Manager on behalf of the whole Perinatal Service, said: “We're delighted we’ve received this accreditation. The self review process and the peer review visit was hard work.
"As a team we worked together to showcase the excellent service provided by a team of skilled and compassionate professionals to support mums, babies and their families during what can be an extremely vulnerable time.
"We'll celebrate this achievement with our teams and consider the findings of the report so we can continue to improve for our families and continue to provide the highest standards of care”.
The Royal Collect of Psychiatrists award is testament to the continued commitment to delivering high quality perfect care for mums and families across Cheshire and Merseyside.
The rigorous review process highlighted several areas of good practice including improving accessibility, particularly to those from marginalised communities, and the team is striving to collect accurate data and use that data to respond to diversity.
A spokesperson for the accreditation review said: “The service has demonstrated drive and commitment to the process and having provided additional evidence to meet the thresholds for accreditation, it was awarded on 4 July 2024 to 18 January 2027. A huge congratulations to the team.”
Patients are also highly complimentary of the team, with one saying: “It’s been wonderful, so supportive. They have really helped us out of a dark place.”
The Perinatal Quality Network works with members to share best practice at a national level. Using a review and accreditation process to promote the highest level of care. All mother and baby units, and a growing number of community perinatal teams are members. It covers three phases; a detailed self review, a detailed peer review and a decision about accreditation and feedback.
