7 December 2011
The team of midwives from Epsom, Sutton and St Helier hospitals are celebrating a hat-trick as, for the third year in a row, one of their members has been shortlisted for the prestigious Royal College of Midwives Annual Midwifery Awards.
Elaine Smith, a midwife who works with mums-to-be and new mums across Sutton, Merton and Surrey, has been nominated for the Mothercare Award for Supporting Families in the Community for her work on preventing and responding to violence or abuse against children.
A former police detective who specialised in preventing and detecting child abuse, Elaine drew upon her experience to improve the way that her fellow midwives identify vulnerable children, ensuring that they are protected from harm.
Recognising that midwives can play a vital role in identifying children who may be at risk of harm, Elaine introduced a scoring system that helps her colleagues to identify families who may be in need of additional support.
In addition, Elaine has been pivotal in strengthening relationships between our midwives and other organisations, such as social services and local police forces, ensuring a more collaborative approach to preventing child abuse.
Elaine's role means that she also works very closely with the Trust's wider safeguarding nursing team, which helps to ensure that children are cared for in a safe, secure environment and identifies those at risk from of harm.
Upon hearing news of being shortlisted for the award, Elaine said: "Whilst it's a real privilege to be nominated, I really couldn't have achieved anything without the support of my colleagues in midwifery.
"From the head of the service to frontline staff, they've shown diligence and a willingness to engage in what can be a difficult and challenging subject."
Sally Sivas is the Head of Midwifery and manages the Trust's 234 midwives. She said: "Elaine has worked extremely hard and absolutely deserves to be on the shortlist. As a Trust, we are yet to win a Royal College of Midwives award, but I feel we have a very good chance this time around.
"Irrespective of the outcome, this is the third year in a row that a member of our midwifery team has been shortlisted for one of these awards, which is outstanding.
"To consistently have members of staff on the shortlist demonstrates that we're doing things right as a team, too."
The awards lunch, at which the winners will be publicly announced, takes place on 25 January 2012.
