The voices and experiences of women, parents and families will be central to this assessment. We would encourage women, parents and families to come forward to share their experiences with the panel. There will be several ways to do that in whichever way they feel comfortable in doing so - sharing their experiences, priorities, and expectations for safe, compassionate care. There will be listening sessions in person or virtual, engagement with community groups, as well as opportunities, and support, for those who wish to share but not attend sessions.
We will also be asking women, parents and families to attend visits to maternity and neonatal units across Wales. These are not inspections of units but will adapt around the principles of the Fifteen Steps challenge methodology.
The Fifteen Steps challenge is a person-centred quality assurance process used in healthcare settings where a small, mixed team, including women, parents and families takes a guided "walkabout" through a clinical area to assess it from the patient’s first-impression perspective. The goal is to identify strengths and areas for improvement by asking what the environment looks, feels, and sounds like, leading to structured feedback to enhance women, parents and families experience and demonstrate quality care.