Head of Midwifery:
Gemma Puckett
Deputy Head of Midwifery:
Emma Bradley
Transformation Lead Midwife:
Sian De Cruz
Fetal Wellbeing Lead Midwife:
Katie Woolger
Inpatient Maternity Matron:
Jan Thurgood
Maternity Matron for Labour Ward, Triage and Maternity Theatres:
Lisa Williams
Maternity Matron – Community and The Abbey Birth Centre:
Katie Spiers
Perinatal Quality and Safety Lead Midwife:
Julie Comer
Named Midwife for Safeguarding:
Sarah- Jane Legg
Consultant Midwife:
Lisa Sharpe
Antenatal Clinic and Day Assessment Unit:
Lauren Brown
Joan Booker Ward Manager (Antenatal and Postnatal):
Enrica Boscarato
Labour Ward Manager:
Nadia Pridmore
Abbey Birth Centre Lead Midwife:
Vicky Kirbell
Virginia Ash
Virginia Roderick
Simone Butler
Lotte Pollett
Rachel Summerwill
Naomi Gawley
Charlotte Wood
Amy Lovegrove
Ashford Hub:
Helen Croxon
Woking Hub:
Rachel Flatters
St Peters Hub:
Luisa Jbira
Rosa Parks (Complex Care team):
Kirstie England
Willows (Vulnerable women team):
Amy Duncan
Geographical team:
Emma Ware
Emily Hodgkinson
(Pictured above: Gemma Puckett and Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent)
Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE, the first Chief Midwifery Officer for England, has visited St Peter’s Hospital, in Chertsey, which is part of Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The country’s most senior midwife was able to see first-hand how the Trust is working to provide better care for mothers and babies and celebrate the outstanding contribution of staff.
Professor Dunkley-Bent is responsible for driving improvements in care for new and expectant mothers, building increased safety and support in maternity care and promoting safer births as part of Better Births, the report of the National Maternity Review, and the NHS Long Term Plan. She is also responsible for providing professional, strategic and clinical leadership to colleagues across the country.
Professor Dunkley-Bent learnt more about some of the Trust’s recent work to drive improvements in maternity care, and how they are working towards their vision of ‘one team, working together, delivering safe and outstanding care for every woman and her family’.
Each year at ASPH, there are around 3500 babies delivered at the Abbey Wing, Abbey Birth Centre and at home. St Peter’s Hospital also has the regional Level 3 NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) which is able to care for extremely premature babies.
Professor Dunkley-Bent also presented a prestigious Chief Midwifery Officer Award to Gemma Puckett, Acting Head of Midwifery at Ashford and St Peter’s. These awards are designed to recognise and reward the significant and outstanding contribution made by midwives in England.
Gemma received this award as a result of her commitment to excellence, and her exceptional leadership skills, particularly over the past year during Covid-19. She has worked at the Trust for over two years, and prior to her current role as Acting Head, Gemma was the Deputy Head of Midwifery at the Trust.
Professor Dunkley-Bent said:
“The Chief Midwifery Officer Awards celebrate the ways that staff have gone above and beyond to improve care for women and their babies, as well as their contribution to the profession of midwifery as a whole. I was extremely proud to hear about the amazing work that has taken place and honoured to have the opportunity to present this award. ”
Gemma said:
“I was absolutely overwhelmed and completely humbled to have been nominated for the award, it was a complete surprise and I haven’t stopped smiling since. I cannot thank the incredible team I work with who make being a leader an absolute joy and privilege, even through these difficult times.”
Andrea Lewis, Chief Nurse at Ashford and St Peter’s, said:
“I’d like to congratulate Gemma for being the recipient of a Chief Midwifery Officer Award. I am so proud of Gemma for all of the work she has done for our maternity services. The past few months have been incredibly challenging during Covid-19, but Gemma has shown fantastic leadership and provided such great support for the team, we’re really lucky to have her and this award is very much deserved.”
Maternity support workers are the frontline of a family's journey through pregnancy, childbirth and the first few days of birth.
As a maternity support worker, you'll work under the supervision of a registered midwife. They are sometimes also known as maternity healthcare support workers or midwifery assistants.
You'll be:
- helping to care for mothers and babies
- making routine observations (temperature, pulse, blood pressure, breathing, etc)
- updating records and other admin tasks
- educating parents one-to-one or in groups
- taking blood samples for testing
- ordering stationery and equipment
- preparing equipment
- promoting breastfeeding
- reporting problems to a registered midwife or nurse
- the community
- post-natal wards
- maternity theatres
- delivery suites
- midwifery led units
There are opportunities to develop within this role and with additional skills rotate into the community setting. You'll also be expected to complete the Care Certificate if you haven't already done so.
Entry requirements:
It is expected that you have a good standard of numeracy and literacy.
It is desirable to have up to five GCSEs or equivalent and some may also ask for a qualification in health and social care such as an NVQ.
Previous experience of working with children and families is also desirable.
- care of babies' basic personal hygiene, bathing, nappy changing and oral hygiene
- planning feeding regimes and supporting parents with feeding, monitoring temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and weight
- monitoring blood glucose levels and/or serum bilirubin levels
- keeping appropriate records and reporting abnormal findings
Entry requirements
Applicants for Nursery nurse posts must hold a Level 3 qualification in childcare and education.
They should have some experience of caring for babies, preferably in a hospital setting, although this is not essential.
Midwives provide care and support to women and their families while pregnant, throughout labour and during the period after a baby’s birth.
We have regular vacancies for Registered midwives here at ASPH across a number of clinical areas and are lucky enough to have an alongside birth centre, level 3 Neonatal Unit on site which allows midwives to gain varied experiences of delivering low and high risk care within the clinical setting and in the community. We have a number of specialist continuity of carer teams running to those that meet criteria for these teams.
Entry Requirements
To become a midwife you’ll need to train and study for an undergraduate degree or postgraduate degree or diploma, or secure a place on a midwifery degree apprenticeship. Entry requirements vary depending on where you’d like to study or work. However, they usually look for a minimum of:
- five GCSEs at grade 9-4/C or above - typically including English language or literature and a science subject
- and either two or three A-levels or equivalent qualifications such as GNVQ advanced level or NVQ level 3
A degree standard apprenticeship in midwifery is also available. To get onto a degree apprenticeship, you will need to apply for an apprentice position when vacancies are available at the trust.
We currently support students from Surrey University, University of West London and Kingston University. Students will attend the University for theory modules, when they will complete academic assessments. They will attend placements at their allocated hospital which will enable them to work in a range of clinical settings to support their knowledge and development and allow them experiences to support their midwifery practice.
ASPH are proud to be an early adopter site for Continuity of carer as a result of the Better births national maternity review. The maternity review recommended a number of changes to the way that maternity care is delivered in the UK and Continuity of care was one of the main changes indicated in order to reduce poor outcomes for women, birthing people and their babies.At ASPH we currently have 3 Continuity or carer teams and a forth being set up to ensure more personalised care for women and the opportunity for women to build strong trusting relationships with their care givers.
Those who meet criteria at booking will be seen by one of these teams throughout their pregnancy and will have an allocated named midwife who will see them throughout their maternity journey in the antenatal period, intrapartum and postnatally. This way of working ensures better continuity of care which leads to greater satisfaction, safer care and less likelihood of poor outcomes.
Rosa Parks Team – Complex Care
Lead by Kirstie England
The Rosa Parks team care for women and birthing people who have been identified as having a high risk pregnancy, requiring additional support and monitoring and input from the obstetric team.
Within the team, two midwives look after those expecting multiple babies under the multiple pregnancy team. These midwives work closely with Consultant Jo Hale who is named consultant for multiple births.
Willows Team – Vulnerable Women
Lead by Erin Pascoe
As part of The Willows team you will be caring for vulnerable groups of women, including teenagers, substance and/or alcohol misuse, perinatal mental health and learning disabilities. As part of the Willows team you will also be part of an innovative and exciting new model of care providing presence and full continuity of care to women residing in HMP Bronzefield. The post will involve working across multiple clinical settings, home and HP Bronzefield. You will also be expected to participate in an on-call rota as part of a group practice team for the Willows caseload of women.
Abbey Team – Low risk care
Lead by Vicky Kirbell
The Abbey team midwives are based out of The Abbey Birth Centre on the St Peters Hospital Site. Women who self-refer for maternity care who fall outside of our normal catchment areas for care by our maternity teams and who meet the low risk care criteria will be cared for by this team. Any women or birthing person who also meets the low risk criteria can be referred by community midwife or request to be cared for by the team. In the 2019-2020 review of this continuity team it was found that on average, women saw their named midwife for 62% of their appointments, and saw a member of the COC team for 95% of their appointments in the antenatal period. The Abbey team found that women who delivered with them achieved a higher rate of spontaneous vaginal births compared to the national average which is fantastic. Rates of breast feeding at discharge from the team were also higher than the national average. There was also a lower than average rate of pre-term birth and mental health problems postnatally.
Geographical Continuity team - New for 2022
Lead by Emma Ware and Emily Hodgkinson
The Geographical team midwives will be based out of the Ashford hospital site and caring for women and birthing people living within the Stanwell area of Surrey. This is the largest area of deprivation that ASPH covers geographically. We know from the MBRRACE 2019 report that there are large disparities in care for those that live in these areas as well as those from minority ethnic backgrounds. By providing continuity to those living in these areas we aim to reduce poor outcomes.
The team will follow a group practice model of care where midwives will be predominately community based providing care in clinics and the home setting, will include some on-call working to support delivery of babies in a variety of settings including the Labour ward, The Abbey Birth Centre and at home.
Newly qualified midwives join us as Band 5 midwives, this is a developmental post to gain confidence as a midwife and enable attainment of clinical competencies for band 6. It is anticipated that attainment of band 6 competencies will be achieved within 1 year and in a maximum of 2 years.
We run a full supported preceptorship programme upon joining the trust to ensure that you are supported to work across all clinical areas and gain confidence whilst attaining competencies.
As part of our preceptorship programme, all midwives will rotate across clinical areas which will include Antenatal and postnatal wards, Antenatal clinic and Day assessment Unit, Labour Ward, The Abbey Birth Centre and Community.
Following completion of the preceptorship programme and attainment of clinical competencies, the majority of midwives will continue to be rotational midwives or will have the opportunity to apply to be a core team member of a specific clinical area or continuity team as vacancies arise.
Here at Ashford and St Peters we support continued professional development of our staff. We support applications for further education and training which could range from specific subject courses such as breast feeding or complementary therapies, level 7 CPD modules such as Newborn Infant Physical Examination (NIPE) to a full master’s degree.
We have a supportive Clinical Practice education team who are dedicated to ensure continued confidence in skills and ability among staff and who welcome applications for development within roles. We currently support staff members attending additional education and CPD from a number of Universities including Surrey University, The University of West London and Kingston University.
We have a supportive Clinical Practice education team who are dedicated to ensure continued confidence in skills and ability among staff and who welcome applications for development within roles. We currently support staff members attending additional education and CPD from a number of Universities including Surrey University, The University of West London and Kingston University.
At ASPH we offer a ‘Birth Reflections, Birth Support, Counselling and Bereavement service’ The service was founded by the late Anna Roland-Price and has recently celebrated 21 years.Anna was passionate about providing patients with support and guidance throughout the birth experience and importantly raised awareness of ‘Tocophobia’, the intense fear of pregnancy and childbirth. She worked tirelessly with fellow midwife and trained counsellor, Zara Chamberlain, to publicise and reduce the negative psychological effect this can have on parents. In 2010 the ‘Birth Reflection’ service later won an ‘All-party Parliamentary’ award in recognition of the care for postnatal women.
Zara Chamberlain, Counsellor and Psychotherapist said: “Sadly Anna died last December but was truly ahead of her time and remains one of the most inspirational midwives I have ever known. She would have been so very proud that the service she began all those years ago remains an integral and important part of the maternity service at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals.”
This service is available to any woman who has given birth at Ashford & St. Peter’s Hospitals and her partner. The service provides women and their partners the opportunity to talk about their birth experience, to share feelings and reflect on their birth, discussing the whole experience in an atmosphere of trust and safety, helping to clarify events. Although women are encouraged to talk through their experiences while they are still in hospital, many find they need to have time at home adjusting to family life before being able to reflect upon their experience. A birth reflection experience can help considerably to obtain a greater understanding of events surrounding the birth, why possible intervention was necessary, and the possible implications for future births.
A grateful parent, said: “I am just so grateful to the amazing team that run the Birth Reflections Service at ASPH. They not only helped me reflect and recover from my first birth experience, which was very traumatic for both me and my son who came close to losing his life. But also helped me mentally prepare for my second birth, which I had a huge amount of fear and anxiety around. I will never forget their kind and supportive approach which enabled me to go into my second birth experience with a more positive outlook.”We also have a dedicated room on our labour ward named Daffodil room. The Daffodil Room at St Peter’s Hospital is used for parents experiencing the devastating loss of a baby, through a later miscarriage, termination of pregnancy for fetal abnormalities, stillbirth or neonatal death.
"Dealing with the loss of a baby is one of the hardest things families will ever face and caring for these families with dignity, respect, care, compassion and love is what we strive to achieve. The time that parents spend with their baby is short, so these memories really are priceless to many parents and we want to provide the best possible environment."
We are extremely to be able to provide a perinatal mental health service to women who require additional support in preconception pregnancy and postnatal and were one of the first trusts to offer this service.We have a dedicated perinatal mental health midwife who can support women through their pregnancy, intrapartum and postnatal period. Individuals can be referred by their named midwife from booking and at any time during their pregnancy journey.
The Perinatal mental health midwives provide additional support, providing pathways and signposting them to self-referral services. If women have moderate to severe mental health needs we can refer to Surrey and Boarders Perinatal Team who can support with more complex cases.
We can also refer to Parent Infant Mental Health who support with developing relationship between parent and baby. They also offer women with mental health needs advice for planning a pregnancy. The Willow’s continuity team midwives support many women with perinatal mental health concerns in pregnancy but women can also access the service if they are not being cared for by the team. The services provided are confidential and personally tailored to meet the individual needs of women. It is also possible to support with pre-birth planning, medication reviews and what is safe in pregnancy.
Biomechanics use and teaching is something we are very proud of at ASPH, being passionate about facilitating normal births.
Biomechanics uses specific knowledge and techniques that act on maternal anatomy, to support maternal comfort and optimal fetal positioning for birth, in order to prevent and resolve problems related to poor fetal position and reduce the need for intervention.
We encourage midwives to become educated in biomechanics to use within our multiple birth settings including labour ward, alongside midwifery led unit and at home. it on our labour ward and midwifery led unit, and we utilise it with a multi-level approach, starting from educating the birthing people in the antenatal period. We have held a number of study days to support the implementation of this learning amongst our students and midwives, and step by step guides are available in all clinical areas to perform biomechanics techniques appropriately.
Biomechanics is being more and more widely used across our unit and since the start of this we have seen a number of success stories that are regularly shared within the team. We are looking at starting soon a QI project and we are liaising with our digital system developers to create a Biomechanics form for systematic documentation.
We place a strong emphasis on being a values led organisation, and celebrate the contribution of our staff with WOW awards and an annual staff awards ceremony. We believe strongly in staff engagement, and we have a development programme for new Consultants, team and individual coaching programme and emphasis on learning and development. We are delighted that the Trust and individual clinicians have received a number of awards recognising innovation and quality including the 2013 Top 40 Hospitals award with one of our Consultants winning the HEKSS Emerging Leader 2014 award.
Ashford Hospital is on the A30 near Heathrow Airport and St. Peter's Hospital is in Chertsey, near the M3/M25. St. Peter's Hospital provides acute complex medical and surgical care and emergency services, along with maternity, paediatrics and a number of specialist services. Ashford Hospital focuses on planned care, such as day case and orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation services.
More information about general and specialist services the two hospital sites can be found on our website www.ashfordstpeters.nhs.uk
Within easy reach of London, as well as the smaller towns of Weybridge, Woking, and Virginia Water, the local area has excellent independent and state schools. Leafy Surrey offers a rounded life outside of work, and as an ambitious Trust, Ashford and St. Peter's offers opportunities for individuals to try new things and to gain exposure, and a supportive and welcoming team in which to do this.
Click here to read our recent CQC report: www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RTK
Ashford Hospital is on the A30 near Heathrow Airport and St. Peter's Hospital is in Chertsey, near the M3/M25. St. Peter's Hospital provides acute complex medical and surgical care and emergency services, along with maternity, paediatrics and a number of specialist services. Ashford Hospital focuses on planned care, such as day case and orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation services.
More information about general and specialist services the two hospital sites can be found on our website www.ashfordstpeters.nhs.uk
Within easy reach of London, as well as the smaller towns of Weybridge, Woking, and Virginia Water, the local area has excellent independent and state schools. Leafy Surrey offers a rounded life outside of work, and as an ambitious Trust, Ashford and St. Peter's offers opportunities for individuals to try new things and to gain exposure, and a supportive and welcoming team in which to do this.
Click here to read our recent CQC report: www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RTK
A well workforce is one which is made up of happy and healthy individuals. ASPH are lucky enough to have a Wellbeing hub on site.The Health and Wellbeing team provide support, advice and information for all staff based upon the six stands of our wellbeing wheel: physical, emotional, financial, environmental, social and cultural.
The Wellbeing support includes an on-site gym, offering exercise classes or use of the gym for free following induction. We have multi-faith centres on both hospital sites which include multi-faith chapels, Muslim Prayer room, a Quiet room for both staff and families who may be facing distress and a Muslim ablutions room, for pre-prayer washing of feet.
There are a number of schemes running to support wellbeing such as salary sacrifice, staff nursery, local discount schemes and cycle to work scheme. For more information about Health and Wellbeing at ASPH visit www.ashfordstpeters.nhs.uk/jointheteam/wellbeing
Current Vacancies
Come and Work With Us in Maternity at Ashford and St Peters NHS Trust!
Within ASPH we have a range of services. We provide a homebirth service, an alongside birthing centre, a level 3 Neonatal Unit and high risk maternal and fetal medicine service. This will give you the opportunity to become skilled in all areas of midwifery.
Our preceptorship programme includes labour ward, postnatal, community and birth centre rotations with the opportunity to then progress into a specialist continuity team!
To apply to join ASPH as a newly quailied Midwife please click here or see the information in the 'Current Vacancies' below.
To attend, please email the education department: asp-tr.cpe-maternity@nhs.net or complete this online form either by visiting this link or by scanning the QR code below:
Salary: £26,938 - £33,111 pa Inc. HCAS
Working Pattern: Full time
Job Type: Permanent
Reference: 323-AME2244
Closing Date: 23 Mar 2022
Salary: £33,922 - £40,872 pa Inc. HCAS
Working Pattern: Part time
Job Type: Fixed Term (01/12/22)
Reference: 323-GKE2238
Closing Date: 21 Mar 2022
Interview Date: 06/04/2022
Salary: £33,922 - £40,872 pa Inc. HCAS
Working Pattern: Full time
Job Type: Permanent
Reference: 323-AME2088
Closing Date: 04 Apr 2022
Find out more about working for the Trust on our website: www.ashfordstpeters.nhs.uk / jointheteam
Gemma Puckett
Head of Midwifery
Email: g.puckett@nhs.net
Sian De Cruz
Transformation Lead Midwife
Email: sian.decruz@nhs.net
To view our ASPH Maternity Join our team Booklet click here.
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