Midwifery supervision is here to stay

Over the past year, I have received many emails and letters from maternity service users, midwives and nurses expressing their concerns and seeking clarity regarding rumours that midwifery supervision will be completely eradicated (Box 1). My consistent message has been that ‘midwifery supervision is here to stay’; however, the development of a future employer-led model of midwifery supervision in the UK is required.

Box 1.Concerns about supervision‘Supervision will become punitive and not restorative’‘Midwives will be referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council at the drop of a hat’‘Without the law supervision will be difficult to enforce’‘The role of the midwife will not be protected’‘Women will lose support; expertise for providing advocacy for women will go’‘Remuneration will stop and be used as a cost saving’‘Numbers of supervisors of midwives will reduce and current ratio will be ignored’‘Who will support self-employed and agency midwives?’‘How will we benchmark if there are no audits?’‘Who's going to provide professional midwifery advice across England?’