Women together: How the NCT harnesses consumer power to

effect change

Elizabeth Duff

NCT Senior Policy Adviser

• Women together: How the NCT harnesses consumer power to effect change

NCT- who we are

• Network of 320 branches covering 100%

of UK• Supports parents before

and after birth • Maintains a community

network of support groups, events and resources for new parents

What we doin direct support services

• Antenatal and postnatal courses for over 70,000 parents

• Breastfeeding counsellor support to over 65,000 parent

• We link up 1,000 - plus parents with special experiences through our register which puts parents in difficult situations in touch with each other

• We answer over 85,000 queries to our helplines each year

Influencing the agenda from the Grass Roots Up230 NCT Reps • Working locally on MSLCs• Working regionally and nationally on NICE Guidelines, NMC

committees, Maternity Care Working Party, RCM Campaign for Normal Birth, RCOG Consumers Forum etc

1000 Activists• Saved maternity units threatened by local reconfiguration• Won judgments against formula company advertisements• Lobbied for introduction of the right to breastfeed in public

57 NCT ReNs • Evidence base underpinning all NCT work

Who do we want to influence?• Legislators

• Policy makers

• Health practitioners

Also …

• Media

• Voluntary sector partners

• The public

Starting young – campaigning in Northern

Ireland

Eileen Hutton

Department of Health press release

2 March 2011

‘Changing the way we pay the NHS’

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley speaks at the Nuffield Health Trust Annual Summit.• “We have a system in the NHS misleadingly called ‘Payment by Results’. The current

system has perverse incentives. … encouraging a reactive approach that increases the chances of last minute interventions.”

• “Take maternity services - it’s in the best financial interests of the hospital to provide care on a purely reactive basis, dealing with problems as they arise rather than preventing them from happening in the first place. The hospital benefits. The mother does not.

• “Whether at home, in a midwife-led unit or in an obstetric unit, mothers-to-be should be supported by an integrated service .. focused on the outcomes – a healthy baby, a healthy mother and a good birth experience.  The tariff should support the quality and service needed, not distort it”.

Working together

• NCT is a partner in developing services at local, regional and national levels

• NCT believes midwives are essential to women’s positive experience of birth and transition to parenthood

• All women need a midwife some need a doctor too

Breastfeeding manifesto coalition

Partners & alliances

NCT Big Weekend 2010

Influencing at the highest level

Reclaiming Birth rally

Bath Rally

No Room at the Inn

Thank you for inviting me andthank you for listening!

Elizabeth Duffe_duff@nct.org.uk