A-EQUIP pilot sites

A-EQUIP (advocating for education and quality improvement) is the name for the new employer led model of midwifery supervision which is currently being tested by a number of pilot sites across England. A-EQUIP is a continuous improvement process that builds: personal and professional resilience, enhances quality of care for women and babies and supports preparedness for appraisal and professional revalidation.

The A-EQUIP approach aims to ensure that through staff development, action to improve quality and experience of care, becomes an intrinsic part of everyone’s job, every day, in all parts of the system.

49 maternity providers submitted applications to become A-EQUIP pilot sites to test the new model. The six successful sites are

NHS England North region

  • Airedale NHS Foundation Trust
  • Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust

NHS England Midlands and East region

  • University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, South Warwickshire Foundation Trust, George Eliot Hospital Trust & Coventry University

NHS England South region

  • Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

NHS England London region

  • Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
  • Whittington Health NHS Trust

Independent midwifery supervision provider (adjoined to one of the sites)

  • One to One Midwives

Map of the UK show an approx location for the pilot sites. Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, South Warwickshire Foundation Trust, George Eliot Hospital Trust & Coventry University, Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust and Whittington Health NHS Trust

Midwives working in pilot sites have completed a Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA) bridging programme that has been developed to prepare midwives to deploy the A-EQUIP model. They will also prepare their organisation for implementing the model over the coming months.

During these pilots, 41 midwives will be trained to be PMAs, each supporting and testing the new model with five operational midwives each.

The pilot period began in November 2016 and is expected to complete in March 2017. The evaluation of the pilot sites has been designed to facilitate rapid learning to enable national launch of the final model by April 2017, subject to the law change.

With the support of our A-EQUIP pilot sites, a video has also been developed to provide an overview of how the A-EQUIP model works in practice and the benefits to midwives, mothers, babies and families. The video was produced with grateful thanks to Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, Whittington Health and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.