The Three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services recognises the need for staff in labour ward coordinator (LWC) roles to have appropriate training and ongoing development. LWCs are integral in setting the culture and leading safety standards within the birthing environment and for the wider maternity team. The need for a nationally recognised LWC development and educational framework is set out in the Workforce planning and sustainability immediate and essential actions (IEAs) (Ockenden, 2022).

The Labour ward coordinator education and development framework is the first of its kind for this role and defines the core proficiencies required by people in these roles across six domains. Alongside the core proficiencies, there are role descriptors, an organisational readiness tool which can be used to consider how the role is supported across the organisation, support to develop business cases for the role, and a resource toolkit to support individuals to meet the proficiencies.

This framework has been co-produced with input from key maternity stakeholders across the 7 regions, including service users, maternity improvement advisors, midwifery learners, heads and directors of midwifery and professional midwifery advocates.