A team at the University of Leicester (UoL), part of the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration (GM PSRC) Enhancing Cultures of Safety theme, along with NHS England’s Maternity and Neonatal Programme Team have developed a set of resources, designed to be used collaboratively by care teams to explore and enrich their own local safety cultures.

This translational work was informed by the qualitative research project ‘Enabling safety culture development practices across maternity and neonatal services’ led by the UoL team and commissioned by NHS England. MOMENTS draws on a ‘safety culture-as-practiced’ approach, which means using ordinary, taken-for-granted practices (i.e., safety huddles, handovers) to provide a ‘window’ through which to explore the ways they work to embody and reinforce local values, and to identify potential for transformative change. Such practices draw on knowledge that is shared between staff, as well as material ‘things’, and culturally-grounded social structures.

Following stakeholder workshops with PPI groups and staff to test proof of concept, the research team and NHSE colleagues have worked with a creative company, NiftyFox, to co-produce the MOMENTS framework. This is available via a website, which also includes an animation and practice guides. The resources have been successfully piloted with perinatal clinical teams at four NHS sites and now MOMENTS is being integrated into the national Maternity and Neonatal improvement programme, with support for implementation provided from the regional Patient Safety Collaboratives.

Further work is planned for 2025 within the Greater Manchester PSRC Enhancing Cultures of Safety theme to explore the transferability of MOMENTS to other settings, with different forms of implementation support. The resource will be piloted at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, within the surgical directorate, and a qualitative evaluation of fit, engagement, implementation, and impact will be conducted, involving workshops, focus groups, observations of MOMENTS in use, and interviews with staff involved in the pilot.

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