The first cohort of ‘Capital Midwife Fellows’ received their awards in recognition of the successful completion of a six-month programme of professional development in leadership and quality improvement.
The aim of the fellowship is to prioritise support for maternity staff that may face discrimination or barriers to move into leadership roles. This initiative followed the publication of the ‘Turning the Tide’ report where Capital Midwife brought ethnic minority maternity leaders to design products to help tackle systemic racism in the NHS.
NHS North West London would like to share our congratulations to all the fellows on achieving their awards. We wish these midwives and all others great success as they progress in the journey through their maternity careers. We would like to highlight recognition for local midwives on receiving their awards and completion of the programme;
Junko Ozawa and Massah Dauda, at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust,
Henrietta Nheta and Keshia Gnahore, at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust
Thobile Zikhali, at London Northwest University Healthcare NHS Trust.
As a special congratulations and celebration of success as a Capital Midwife Fellow, we would also like to welcome our new North West London Midwife colleagues;
Dilan Chauhan, Community Midwifery Team Leader at Queen Charlottes and Imperial College Healthcare Trust, and
Corinna Nicaury Rossi, Practice Educator at Northwick Park Hospital.
Pippa Nightingale MBE, Chief Executive of London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, shares her reflections;
“It is important we recognise this is a long-standing issue that can only be tackled if we are open and honest about it. It is not something we should be shying away from and the Capital Midwife Fellows is a step in the right direction. I am delighted we have midwives paving the way for, what I hope, will be many more colleagues in future. We need to see better representation of ethnic minority staff in senior maternity positions which is reflective of both our staff and patients.”
As part of our NHS North West London ambition towards equity and equality for our workforce and population, this scheme will support in making headway towards a health care service that promotes and embodies equality, diversity and inclusion for all.
The fellowship awards were proudly presented by Kate Brinkworth, Regional Chief Midwife for London, NHS England. Attending the ceremony to celebrate and recognise the hard work and efforts of the successful Capital Midwife Fellows were Vicky Cochrane, Director of Midwifery and Sandy Seeley-Fletcher, Senior Midwife and Professional Midwifery Advocate from Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust.
We want to highlight that Midwifery in North West London is such a rewarding and fulfilling career and we encourage and support staff to flourish at all levels.
We want to recruit midwives of every gender and background to join the North West London maternity family. You can be part of a team supporting women and families throughout and after pregnancy and join parents in bringing new life into the world.
Midwives learn and require a variety of skills whilst on the job and receive great working benefits. There are opportunities for continuous progression, development and there is no age limit into joining this new career path. Find out more about if this could be the career for you at NHS Midwifery, health careers
