The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity and Neonatal System (WY&H LMNS) has six NHS providers of maternity care: Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust offering the full choice of birth setting from home birth to obstetric led birth at a number of sites.
Our nationally recognised maternity services attract and retain a highly effective workforce that will be well led, innovative and will continuously learn.
Our vision for West Yorkshire and Harrogate is to have a full establishment of maternity professionals, reflective of our diverse local populations, who feel encouraged and supported to develop and progress in their chosen careers.
This resource hub provides information and resources for those exploring careers within maternity, including videos from local maternity provider Trust midwives and information from our partner universities about how you can commence your journey into midwifery.
"I loved how the midwives displayed compassionate and kindness towards women who need it at their most."
"I wanted to support women"
"The love of helping others and wanting to make them feel special at such a special time in their lives."
"To advocate fiercely for women rights and support women to find their inner strength during the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods."
If you are interested in a career in maternity services and would like to know more about roles in midwifery visit the NHS Health Careers website.
In West Yorkshire and Harrogate there is a variety of midwifery roles in each of the six Provider Trusts, which offer you a lifelong rewarding career in maternity services. From the beginning of your career as a newly qualified midwife to specialist midwifery roles.
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity and Neonatal System (WY&H LMNS) follow a centralised process for the recruitment of newly qualified midwives (NQMs).
The six hospital Trusts within the LMNS work in partnership to provide a more consistent approach improving the recruitment experience for students, reduce the number of ‘duplicated’ applications and reduce the risk of having to re-advertise roles causing delays in recruiting to vacant band 5 roles across the LMNS.
The recruitment process consists of four stages: pre-application, application, interview and offer. Students will complete one application, attend one interview and will be asked to indicate their preferred choice of Trust to work.
Jobs will be advertised on NHS jobs via The Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust on behalf of all six trusts in the LMNS. Typically, jobs will be advertised in April, with interviews taking place during May.
Preceptorship is a structured start for newly qualified practitioners. The main aim is to welcome and integrate newly registered practitioners into their new team and place of work. Preceptorship helps professionals to translate and embed their knowledge into everyday practice, grow in confidence and have the best possible start to their careers (NMC 2020).
As a qualified midwife you have already met the necessary competencies required for practice (and for registration), so preceptorship is not about teaching you how to do the work, it is about providing you with the correct resources to develop as a professional.
The aim of a preceptorship package is to ensure you receive support in the transition from student to qualified practitioner. We understand that beginning a new role can cause anxiety, therefore we hope this preceptorship booklet will reduce some of this worry by guiding you through the aspects of practice you will need to demonstrate your confidence in as well as provide opportunities to reflect on your practice.
We understand that there may be a need to take some time away from registered practice during the course of your career however if you are considering returning to midwifery and want to find out more you can visit the Health Careers website.
Alternatively, if you want to find out if there are return to midwifery opportunities locally please contact any of the Trusts within the West Yorkshire and Harrogate LMNS to discuss your individual circumstances.
There are various sources of health and wellbeing support available to staff working across the LMNS. This includes local support from the West Yorkshire Health and Care Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub, for example.
Wider sources of support can came from trade unions and professional associations such as The Royal College of Midwives, there to support you in all aspect of your working life, from pay to professional development.
