Register for the MJA Symposium

9.30 – Registration: Tea, coffee and pastries available

• Welcome: Sarah Woolnough – CEO, The King’s Fund
• Keynote speech: Michelle Welsh MP – National Maternity Adviser

Morning session

Workforce Pressures, Culture and Innovation

• Dr Emily Hotton – Specialist Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and clinical researcher, University of Bristol: Are maternity services open to innovation?
• Emily Townsend – Senior Correspondent, HSJ: How I uncovered the failure of NHSE’s culture change programme
• Sanja Strkljevic, Partner, Clinical Negligence, Leigh Day: Whistleblowing, duty of candour and eradicating the culture of fear

Q&A

Inequality, race and maternity outcomes

• Dr Sarah Scobie – Deputy Director of Research, Nuffield Trust: Embargoed exclusive analysis – Who needs emergency care in the year after giving birth?
• Kirsty Kitchen – Director, The Birth Companions Institute: The health and wellbeing needs of pregnant women, mothers and their babies under probation supervision
• Tobi Thomas – Health and Inequalities Reporter, The Guardian: Interrogating the data on birth outcomes to find overlooked stories
• Dr Louise Page – Clinical Director, Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigation (MNSI): HEART and HEWS: Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigation: Promoting health equity through safety investigations in maternity and neonatal care
• Sandra Igwe MBE – Chief Executive, The Motherhood Group: Invisible experiences, visible harms: Black maternal mental health and the role of journalism

Lunch: Hot buffet

Afternoon session

Safety, scandal and accountability in maternity care

• Professor Marian Knight – MBRRACE and NPEU, University of Oxford: How can we use evidence to more effectively guide practice and the questions journalists should be asking.
• Professor Mary Dixon Woods – THIS Institute, University of Cambridge: How organisational degradation happens, how to recognise the warning signs, and what can be done about it
• Hannah Barnes – Investigations Editor, The New Statesman: What it takes to investigate poor care.
• Catherine Roy – Author of Maternity: An Ongoing British Scandal: How did an anti-medical doctrine become national health policy?

Panel discussion

Chaired by Theo Clarke

Supporting families fighting for justice through telling their stories

• Shaun Lintern, The Sunday Times
• Kim Thomas, Birth Trauma Association
• Dr Jack Hawkins, Nottingham campaigner

• Sanja Strkljevic, Partner, Clinical Negligence, Leigh Day

4.30: Networking drinks

With thanks to Blue Lozenge for their support.