Tell the CQC what your maternity care was like for you in 2023
If your baby is born in January, February or March 2023, you could take part in this major survey that assesses the quality and safety of maternity services in England.
Care Quality Commission are inviting people to take part in this year’s survey from April. Taking part is voluntary and all answers are confidential and anonymous. They will publish the results on their website later this year.
Their survey has been running regularly since 2007. It asks people about their experiences of:
- antenatal care
- labour and birth
- postnatal care
Care Quality Commission want to know your views on a wide range of issues, including:
- did you have confidence and trust the staff delivering your care?
- did you have access to help and information when you needed it?
- were you able to make choices and involved in decisions about your care?
- were you treated with dignity and respect?
- did staff listen to you and were your concerns taken seriously?
Participating in the survey will help improve care. Care Quality Commission will analyse the responses to:
- understand peoples’ experience at each hospital trust
- identify any trends in experience across England.
They also use the results to inform their understanding of the quality of local maternity services. This helps them see where they need to follow up directly on any concerns.
Hospital trusts and those who commission services will use the results too. They can see where they can make changes to improve the experience of people who use their maternity service in the future.
The survey can be completed online or as a paper questionnaire. It is available in 11 different languages as well as in large print, Braille and easy read format.
Victoria Vallance, our Director of Secondary and Specialist Healthcare, said:
It is vital that we listen to people using maternity services so we can understand what makes a good experience and what needs to improve.
“We want to hear from as many people as possible about the maternity care they’ve received. The more people who take part in the survey, the richer and more valuable the information we gather will be. That will help hospital trusts to target improvements.
“We want to ensure the diversity of people using NHS maternity services is represented in the experiences we capture. This will mean we’ll be able to pinpoint where there may be inequalities for some people, and crucially how they can be addressed.
“The survey is anonymous and carried out independently.
“If you are invited to complete the survey, we really want to hear from you. We need you to tell us what works well and what you think needs to change. Please help us to drive the action required, so everyone using maternity services can have a positive experience every time.”
About the survey:
- All women and people over the age of 16 who had a live birth in January, February or March 2023 are eligible to take part.
- If you are invited to take part, you will be sent a letter from the NHS hospital trust where you received your maternity care with a paper questionnaire and a link to complete the survey online. The letter will explain how to take part in an alternative format such as a different language or easy read.
- The survey is part of the NHS Patient Survey Programme.
Share your views and experiences of maternity services specifically as a partner
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) in partnership with Healthwatch Oldham, Healthwatch Rochdale and Action Together have created this survey with the aim to gather the views and feedback from partners who have supported birthing people to access maternity services. Survey open to residents outside of Oldham and Rochdale (this includes Bury).
