Great Western Hospital

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

We looked for evidence that women were always treated with kindness, empathy and compassion. We checked that women’s privacy and dignity was respected, that they understood that they and their experience of how they were treated and supported mattered. We also looked for evidence that every effort was made to take women’s wishes into account and respect their choices, to achieve the best possible outcomes for them.

At our last inspection we rated this key question good. At this inspection the caring remained good.

We have not awarded this service a score for Caring.

Find out about when we will not publish a key question score and what we look at when we assess Caring.

We scored the service as 3. The evidence showed a good standard. The service always treated women with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Women and their families we spoke to, felt they were treated with kindness, compassion, and dignity. Midwives took time to interact with women and those close to them in a respectful and considerate way.

Staff listened to women and communicated effectively with them. Feedback from women showed they felt staff were kind and were supportive.

Staff achievements were shared through notice boards around the unit and during feedback. We saw examples where staff had gone above and beyond to support women during their birthing experiences.

The service worked closely and had positive relationships with the local Maternity and Neonatal Voices partnership (MNVP). The MNVP engaged regularly with leaders to ensure voices of women were heard and feedback was passed on, including a bi-monthly triangulation of feedback meeting.

The triangulation meeting reviewed feedback from women using the service and developed actions on how to support women and their families and to improve services.

The friends and family feedback for November 2025 showed the overall positive feedback was 88% and positive feedback for December 2025 showed there was 93%. Positive feedback examples included compassionate care from midwives, great community care including antenatal information and good care in the day assessment unit. The negative feedback received was around a lack of communication and long waits for induction of labour.

We scored the service as 3. The service treated women as individuals and made sure women’s care, support and treatment met women’s needs and preferences.

Staff understood women’s individual needs and preferences, and this was reflected in the care, treatment and support they received during their pregnancy and birthing journey. Staff were understanding and non-judgmental when caring for or discussing women with mental health needs.

We saw staff give emotional support and advice to women and women told us they felt supported during their pregnancy and birth.

It was clear after talking to women that they were emotionally supported throughout their maternity journey and were able to access advice and care when needed. Women told us, staff listened and made themselves available throughout the unit.

The findings of the Maternity Services Survey 2025 showed when women were asked if a midwife asked about their mental health, the service scored 8.6, which was the same as the national trust average for England. Women were also asked were you given enough support for your mental health during your pregnancy?, the service scored 9.2, which was higher than the national trust average for England.

We scored the service as 3. The evidence showed a good standard. The service promoted women’s independence, so women knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Women told us they felt listened to regarding their concerns and anxieties when making decisions about their care. They reported that staff were flexible and supported women with their individual needs.

The service worked closely with the MNVP to gain feedback of maternity services from women. Women felt supported to make decisions throughout their pregnancy journey and felt their voices were heard.

There was a focus on personalised care planning for women, and the service recognised that there was further work to be completed fully embed personalised care for women. There was information on the trust website on how to create a birth plan advising to add to the plan where the woman wants to give birth, who will support them and what birthing equipment the woman would want. For example, birthing in a birthing pool.

We scored the service as 3. The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

Maternity staff were supportive and responded to women’s needs. Women fed back to the trust that they felt safe throughout their pregnancy and birthing journey.

The service offered a birth reflections service, which gave women and their families the opportunity to talk about their personal birth experiences. Birth reflections was an opportunity to understand why certain decisions were made and to understand what happened during their birth.

The service had a specialist bereavement midwife to support care for grieving parents. Women and their families could access the bereavement team for as long as they required support and the team support women during any future pregnancies. Bereavement home visits are offered based on family preference, recognising personal, cultural and emotional needs.

The MNVP worked against a work plan to identify what women want within maternity services, feedback and improvement. The MNVP took part in a review of maternity services in September 2025, called 15 steps. The 15 steps review evaluated how a woman feels and sees within the first 15 steps of arrival into the maternity unit. Women were supported to make decisions throughout their pregnancy journey.

We scored the service as 3. The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centered care.

Staff we spoke to were positive and proud about working in the maternity unit. They told us they were valued by all levels of leadership and were positive of the maternity senior leadership team.

Staff told us they were able to develop professionally, and student midwives were very much part of the team. Student midwives told us they felt supported and safe.

Professional midwifery advocates (PMA) provided support and feedback to staff through reflective supervision which is designed to support the practitioner’s wellbeing, resilience and professional effectiveness.

In December 2025 there were 43 PMAs across the service, with 143 PMA supervisions taking place and 198 midwifery staff attending. This showed staff found the supervision valuable and were accessing support through PMAs.

The trust had an occupational and wellbeing website for staff to access, and we saw posters of wellbeing and support services dedicated to perinatal staff. The poster signposted staff on where to access mental health and well-being support, the professional midwifery advocates, flexible working, occupational health and responding to a traumatic event.