Benchmarks for Developmental Care

One of the functions of the North West London Perinatal Network (NWLPN) is to meet the needs of babies and their families in a supportive and co-ordinated way through a common strategy that strives to shape and develop equitable and high quality care throughout our seven hospitals.

The benchmarking process is one of the ways that this is being achieved. The model used for the NWLPN Breast Feeding benchmark has informed this work.

Two benchmarks have been developed through a Developmental Care Benchmarking Group with the hard work and commitment of nursing, medical and therapist representation from the seven neonatal units in the NWLPN. This has been achieved over eight meetings hosted by all the NWLPN neonatal units, with the support of the Senior Nurses, NWLPN Lead Nurses and the collaboration of staff working between meetings to complete tasks and in consultation with the NWLPN Parent Representative Group.

The aims of these two benchmarks are to highlight best practice and improve both the quality and delivery of developmental care across the Network. The benchmarks are:

1. The Sensory Environment Benchmark
2. Family Centred Care Benchmark

Implementation of these benchmarks will:

• Provide a tool to assess and evaluate the sensory environment and family centred care provided for babies and their families in each of the NWLPN neonatal units
• Give outcomes which will provide a measure of achievement for each neonatal unit and identify the unit’s key strengths and areas for improvement in both the sensory environment and family centred care
• Enable NWLPN to share concepts of best practice and identify common themes where further investment, training and development may improve the quality and delivery of developmental care
• Achieve quality improvement of services in NWLPN for babies and families
• Enhance collaboration, multidisciplinary and partnership working across the NWLPN.

This work has been informed by the following reports / documents:

• Neonatal Standards for Stakeholder comment, Feb. 2009
• Baby steps to better care, Bliss Baby Report 2008
• Poppy Project, Family Centred Care in Neonatal Units 2009
• Hospital Discharge of the High Risk Neonate, American Academy of Pediatrics Committee Policy Statement 2008

To view NWLPN Benchmarking Report click here

To view Appendix A click here

To view Appendix B click here