Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) have been shortlisted for a HSJ Patient Safety award for their work with Raham Project, a group for mothers of ethnic minority backgrounds and their partners, in the Peterborough and Cambridgeshire area.

Raham Project engages and supports women and their families from within their community with all things maternity including perinatal mental health. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough LMNS joined forces with them, providing support and integration to reduce health inequalities that women from ethnic minority backgrounds might face.

Run by the local community this project is aimed at, with recent experience of maternity care, Raham Project has made great headway in the short time it has been running in a difficult year.

The project started with posters and short videos and now has developed further videos in community languages/subtitled in English. There have also been virtual forums for women and their families to engage with the project.

The partnership has been shortlisted in the category of Service User Engagement and Co-production Award at the annual HSJ Patient Safety Awards.

Carol Anderson, chief nurse at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “I am beyond delighted this piece of work has been shortlisted for a HSJ Patient Safety Awards.

"The Raham Project has made great strides in a short period of time, and it’s brilliant that we can support them to reach more women and their families and help them in their maternity journey."

Faiza Rehman, founder of Raham Project, mother of two, qualified midwife said: "The last year of creating and growing Raham Project has taught us many valuable lessons. It has only fuelled our desire to create more equity for ethnic minority families using maternity services within the UK.

"We have achieved many things, including creating posters and videos in Mirpuri/Urdu to offering online listening sessions from which we collect the stories of these families to feedback to our local CCG.

"The work that has been carried out has been done through a huge amount of dedication of a very small number of people. We can only imagine how much further we could take this if we continue to have the right support and resources.

"We began our journey wanting to raise the voices and stories of families within ethnic minority communities and plan to move forward keeping them at the centre of our work.

"Thank you to everyone that has supported us so far."

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Maternity and Neonatal System are made up of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG, North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, The Rosie Hospital, Local Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnership groups Neonatal Operational Delivery Network, Public Health Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and local authorities.