Fathers Direct helps clarify skills needed by midwives
Skills for Health* is a body which is defining the skills required by different staff groups across the health sector, through the production of National Occupational Standards and National Workforce Competences.
S4H has completed a framework for Maternity and Care of the Newborn which contains 25 competences. This framework, which contains a substantial list of the key skills midwives and other maternity staff need to work with fathers, can be found on the Skills for Health website.
For ease of understanding, Fathers Direct has produced a summary of these. Set out at http://www.fatherhoodinstitute.org/index.php?id=2&cID=576, this summary can be used by individuals, employers and education providers for a number of purposes including individual development / appraisal; team development; role design and re-design; service design; and education programme / curriculum design.
The standards and competences developed by Skills for Health link, where applicable, to key government agendas across the four countries of the UK. These agendas include the National Service Frameworks (NSF), key targets, and the Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) as part of Agenda for Change (the new pay system for nurses, midwives and most other NHS staff except doctors).
*S4H is the UK Sector Skills Council for health. It is part of the NHS, being ‘hosted’ by an NHS trust, but has its own board and management.
Tags: Maternity
