Become one of our parent reps

We are always looking for new parent reps to join our team. You can give as much or as little time as you have available, and just need to be a recent user of maternity services.

You don’t need any in-depth knowledge of maternity services or the NHS, just lived experience of maternity and a desire to work with staff to make positive changes.

We especially welcome applications from people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, people with disabilities, and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Giving feedback and volunteering

Our role is to listen to parents and collect feedback, looking for themes and trends, as well as suggestions for improvements. We then work with the service to improve things.

We have all kinds of tasks and projects you can get stuck into, such as:

Joining our closed Facebook group and contributing to our discussions
Attending our meetings
Working with our clinical members on coproduction projects to improve the maternity service
Taking feedback in the community
Helping us to run the group with tasks like:
Distributing leaflets via your local noticeboards and baby and toddler groups,
Sharing our survey on social media
Arranging and promoting events
Keeping the website and our leaflets up to date

Some work is remunerated, we pay expenses, and babies and young children are welcome.

You can contact us by:

Completing our surveys

Emailing Emma on chair@readingmaternityvoices.org.uk to share feedback or find out more about joining our work and becoming a volunteer.

Help us with social media campaigns and collecting feedback in the community.

Taking face-to-face feedback from new parents is a key part of our work

These mums gathered to contribute to an audit of our supervisors of midwives. We have also run focus groups on the midwife-led unit, the induction pathway and the homebirth service.

Telling someone in the NHS about your experiences of local maternity services

You may want someone from the Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust – Maternity Services to know how you individually feel about care you have received. Who can help…

You can write to Gill Valentine, Director of Midwifery with feedback or in case of a complaint.

You can talk to the Consultant Midwives – they will explain what your choices are and how they can help. Email us on chair@readingmaternityvoices.org.uk to have your contact details passed on. Please include brief details of your enquiry.

You can also contact Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) for advice or to make a formal complaint.