Join our Core Team

We currently have an opportunity for someone to join us as secretary. You would be part of the core team, and the role is open to interpretation with scope to be more involved in decision making and project work if desired, but can also be simply an administrative role, working closely with the chair.

The role is remunerated at £20 an hour for five mostly flexible hours a month on average, and no formal qualifications are required although you will need to be literate and numerate, and have a confident level of IT skills. You will be required to attend meetings.

You will ideally be a recent user of maternity services, whether as a birthing woman or person, or as a partner/carer/personal assistant of a birthing woman or person, but no in-depth knowledge of maternity services or the NHS is required.

We would especially welcome applications from people from BAME communities, people with disabilities, and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

This role is for applicants from a non-healthcare background.

Please read the role description for more details. If you’d like to have an informal chat to find out more before applying, email our Chair Emma on chair@readingmaternityvoices.org.uk.

To apply, please fill in the application form and return to chair@readingmaternityvoices.org.uk by 9am on Monday, July 6, 2020.

Reading-MVP-Role-Description-Secretary-June-2020-FINAL Download

RMVP-Secretary-application-form Download

Giving feedback and volunteering

Our role as an MVP 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 contact the Consultant Midwives – they will explain what your choices are and how they can help (contact details are being updated as at November 2019).

You can also contact Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) for advice.