Our Engagement: Personalised Care and Support Planning (PCSP)
Since the end of March 2025, Healthwatch Lancashire have been hosting the Personalised Care and Support Planning (PCSP survey on behalf of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) and the following Trusts:
- Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board,
- Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,
- East Lancashire NHS Trust
- Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay, NHS Foundation Trust
What is Personalised Care and Support Planning (PCSP)
(PCSP)Personalised Care and Support Planning means that people have a choice and control over how maternity care is planned and received. This is based on what matters to that person, what that person needs and prefers.
Informed decision-making means that anyone who is receiving care has been fully supported and informed about all the options surrounding their care and treatment.
The Survey
Initially, the survey was launched on all social media platforms, closely followed by the distribution of Posters and Business Cards to each Trust.
The Survey was promoted monthly in the Healthwatch Lancashire Newsletter. At the evaluation of the survey on the 1st of May 2025 there were 34 completed surveys, and in the following months, the surveys increased to 50, so at this point, Louise was asked to visit each trust and promote the survey in person. Hopefully, by doing this, the survey amount would increase and allow for more one-to-one conversations with people directly accessing the services.
In July, Louise made her first visit to Burnley Hospital to the Women’s and Children’s Unit in the reception area of this unit. She held a pop-up information stand in the reception area. Due to the small number of people present on the day, Healthwatch Lancashire are currently in the process of arranging another visit to Burnley.
The next visit was then to the Sharoe Green Unit at Royal Preston Hospital, again, we held a pop-up information stand in the reception area. Louise on this occasion was supported by Aysia Shah, the Preston, Chorley and South Ribble Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) Lead. Here they listened to a number of women and families about their experiences of the Hospital, which were mainly positive about the level of care received.
In order to increase uptake in the survey, Healthwatch Lancashire launched social media advertisemnts on Facebook encouraging people to take part in this research. Our team ultimately also decided perhaps we needed to try a different method of engagement therefore Louise and the engagement team decided to visit the maternity wards of the remaining hospitals and hopefully engage with more people who were both antenatal and postnatal.
Lancaster Royal Infirmary Maternity Unit was the first hospital where this approach was tried out and it proved to be a success. The team got to speak with more mums and their partners, too.
As well as completing more surveys, the team were able to signpost some mums who had obviously had a traumatic birth to the MNVP in their locality for support.
Finally, at the beginning of September, Healthwatch Lancashire visited the Maternity Unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital again we went to the ward to speak with Mum’s waiting to have their baby or who had recently given birth.
The current total of surveys has now risen to 85.
Some of the key themes that we have heard from our visits have been:
- Communication is varied around the induction of labour- we heard from women who had arrived for their induction and experienced long waits
- There is a mix of experiences of badger notes, some people have had positive experiences and love it, however some people explained that the notes aren’t always update and this can cause confusion
Each quarter of the year we complete a summary report that gets sent to the LMNS and Trusts for information, to celebrate good practice and drive service improvement.
In order to increase uptake in surveys we are looking in to physical copies with a postbox available at each Hospital site.
What do you think?
Let us know if you have any thoughts or suggestions by emailing info@healthwatchlancashire.co.uk or calling our office on 01524 239 100.