How Twins Trust demonstrated the impact of NICE guidelines
In 2019 and again in 2023 Fiveways worked with the Twins Trust to evaluate their Maternity Engagement Project which aims to improve care and health outcomes for twin and other multiple pregnancies.
By participating in the Maternity Engagement Project, units are supported by Twins Trust to take
action to improve their services and ensure multiple pregnancy care is delivered in line with NICE Guideline 137 (NG137) and NICE Quality Standard 46 (QS46).
Our 2023 report can be found here.
It was an absolute pleasure working with Fiveways. They are a very professional organisation that takes the time to really understand their clients’ needs. Richard has been fantastic, very easy to work with, and knowledgeable. The evaluation report has been hugely useful for us to assess our maternity engagement project and promote its benefits to maternity units across the UK. We know that midwives have used the report to evidence the need for specialist multiple birth midwives with senior management. We would definitely use Fiveways again.
Our evaluation included
- Reviewing the implementation of the project and its method of measurement.
- Identifying good practice, potential improvements, key recommendations, and lessons learned to support the development of the approach.
- Providing statistical analysis of the project’s outcomes comparing the baseline and follow up data provided by the maternity units.
- Identifying outcomes generated by the project in addition to those relating to NICE adherence and patient outcomes.
- Generating insight from professionals working in the participating units and key stakeholders via online surveys and in-depth interviews.
- Interpreting feedback from patient satisfaction surveys.
Our evaluation revealed
- 33 units (92%) took action to improve practice in one or more of the six priority areas measured.
- All but one of the 36 units measured improved their overall NICE adherence.
- Three years after starting the project, units, on average, see their rates of multiple stillbirths and multiple neonatal deaths both decline by 0.3 percentage points, their rate of multiple neonatal admissions fall by 10.4 percentage points and their rate of multiple emergency caesarean sections fall by 6.7 percentage points.
- Most units felt that working with Twins Trust had been a catalyst for change and without having the charity as an external partner they would not have achieved as much positive change.