Midwifery course approval pulled over safety fears

A regulator highlighted concerns that students were not gaining the expertise needed to deliver safe, effective and kind care

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has withdrawn its accreditation of a university's midwifery programme due to fears over quality and safety.

The regulator highlighted concerns that students at Kent's Canterbury Christ Church University were not gaining the expertise needed to deliver safe, effective and kind care.

An NMC director said the decision was made in the “best interests of women, babies, and families”.

The university said the move had “devastating consequences” for its student midwives.

“Our absolute priority is the wellbeing of our students and staff, and ensuring that our students can continue to complete their studies and begin their future careers, to be the high-quality, much-needed midwives that this region needs,” a university spokesperson said.

From 10 May, completion of the course will no longer lead to registration as a midwife in the UK.

Sam Foster, NMC executive director of professional practice, said while the decision would impact students and the local workforce, the regulator's role was to uphold the high standards that “women and families have the right to expect”.

“Our standards set out the proficiencies every midwife must have from the time they graduate and join our register,” she said.

“We can withdraw approval when we’re no longer assured these standards are being met.”

She added: “Our full attention now turns to working with the university and NHS England on plans to support the affected students to continue their education at another institution.”

The decision did not stop the university seeking fresh approval of a programme in the future, the NMC said.

A course member, who wished to remain anonymous, said she and fellow students had given up previous careers, taken on debt and worked thousands of hours in hospitals.

“We’ve put so much work in, so much time,” she said. “We feel there is an injustice and that it is not fair.

“It’s the women and children of Kent that are ultimately going to suffer from this.”

Analysis

By Mark Norman, Health Correspondent, BBC South East

This is not good news. About 130 second and third-year midwifery students now find themselves without a course.

Many of the final-year students will have been offered jobs at local hospitals. Those jobs are now in jeopardy.

There is also an impact on local hospitals. Many will now have to try to recruit from elsewhere, but there is a lack of suitably qualified midwives in the UK.

When the medical school was created there were high hopes for the positive impact it would have on the recruitment and retention of staff in the county.

Those hopes have now taken a significant hit.

Student midwife Rhoni White, 23, said: “This is the only university in Kent that offers midwifery and is now gone so that means every single midwifery unit or labour and delivery unit in Kent is now going to struggle to get new midwives.”

She said of the development: “I was heartbroken.

"We’ve waited so long to find out when we’ll be starting this course and we’ve been reassured that the university’s going to do everything they can to get us on to the course and then to be told that actually that’s now not happening was an awful shock.”

Ms White said everyone affected was considering their options and other courses.

She added: “I think my best option is just to move away and try and start up somewhere else to be honest because otherwise I’d be waiting years to study midwifery in Kent.”