What has the AIMS Campaigns Team been up to this quarter?

AIMS Journal, 2026, Vol 38, No 3

A report from the AIMS Campaigns Team

Published written outputs:

• Open letter of welcome to Michelle Welsh MP, Government Maternity Advisor

• AIMS comments on the 10 point plan post Ockenden and Amos

• Making sense of maternity service recommendations

• There is no plan B: continuity, accountability, and maternity reform

• AIMS responds to the Nursing and Midwifery Council's Practice Learning Education Standards Consultation

• Open letter of welcome to the Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

• AIMS initial comments on the Amos Report, One Month On

Conferences and group meetings attended:

• 8th May DHSC Maternity and Neonatal Charity and Third Sector Expert Reference Group, inaugural meeting

• 18th May National Voices Heads of Policy Session, online

• Threads of Protest exhibition opening at the Science Gallery, London - AIMS Campaigns Team members were involved in creating some of the artwork displayed. An exhibition exploring inequality in maternity care, and advocating for better birth experiences.

• Launch of the NPEU’s Listen2Baby toolkit which has been created to promote use of intermittent auscultation and improvements in practice

• An NPEU online meeting about their recent paper on numbers and proportions of women giving birth in UK midwifery units since 2016 (both of which have declined)

• 5th June MBRRACE Lay Summary writing session

• 9th June Gloucestershire Place of Birth Campaign Group, online

• 10th June National Maternity and Neonatal Collective meeting with James Murray MP, Secretary of State for Health & Social Care, and Baroness Amos

• 10th/11th June NHS ConfedExpo, Manchester

• 17th June Maternity and Neonatal Stakeholder Council ad hoc meeting to discuss Patient Powered Payments, online

• 17th June Maternity & Midwifery Hour: No pregnant woman sent home

• 20th June Panel discussion at ARM Annual Conference

• 1st July Maternity & Midwifery Hour: Where next for midwifery? Ockenden & Amos Round-up

• 2nd July Webinar on NMC Practice Learning Review Consultation

• 7th July Joint meeting of the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce and Expert Reference Groups, London

• 8th July Charities and Service Users Maternity Continuity Network meeting, online

• 13th July National Maternity and Neonatal Collective meeting to review next steps.

• 17th July Maternity and Neonatal Stakeholder Council meeting, online

Who we have been liaising with:

In every three month period of every year, AIMS Campaigns Team volunteers work collaboratively with a huge range of individuals and organisations. Such collaborative work is vital, if we are to make improvements happen. Please let us know if we’ve forgotten to mention you here!

• NPEU about their recent publication on their Listen2Baby toolkit, and their paper on midwifery units

• NHS England on various current topics including home birth (draft national Standards for England)

• Midwives and obstetricians we have met or heard speak at recent events

• Our partners in the National Maternity and Neonatal Collective

• NMC Practice Learning survey

What we have been reading/listening to/watching:

• The Listen2Baby toolkit

• Dr Kirsten Small's new book for women and professionals, all about monitoring babies during labour (headline, ‘CTG monitoring is nonsense!’)

• Dr Michelle Peter’s paper on the prenatal testing experiences of Black women living in England (having heard her speak recently).

• Some implementation science - we are always thinking about the difficult matter of national policy change and local change management across maternity services.

• THIS Institute blog ‘How can innovation and improvement save the NHS?’

• Final report of the Independent Review of Maternity Services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

• SANDS blog on How to fix maternity, neonatal and bereavement care in England, one month on from the Amos report.

Thanks to all the AIMS Campaigns volunteers who have made this work possible. We are very keen to expand our campaigns team work, so please do get in touch with campaigns@aims.org.uk if you’d like to help!