Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Maternity Care Assistant
The closing date is 23 November 2026
Job summary
The primary role of the Maternity Care Assistant (MCA) is to assist, support and work in collaboration with the midwife and the wider multidisciplinary team; in order to provide a safe and holistic approach to women centred care.

The midwife is ultimately responsible for the care of the mother and her new-born(s), and it is under the direct or indirect supervision of the midwife that the MCA assists with and provides personal care following completion of any relevant or appropriate training. The post is rotational and the employee will be provided with appropriate training for the clinical setting in which they are working. These settings include antenatal inpatient or outpatient care, intrapartum inpatient care and postnatal inpatient and outpatient care.

The post holder is expected to undertake a set of defined competencies. Support will be given to employees to further develop their skills and explore pathways for progression where appropriate. This job description is directly linked to The Maternity Support worker Competency, Education and career Development Framework set out by Health Education England (HEE)

*** Please note that this role is not eligibly for sponsorship of migrant workers due to the RQF level of the role ***
Main duties of the job
The key duties for the maternity care assistant role focus on developing positive relationships with women and their families, respecting their wishes with compassion and empathy. The postholder must deliver trustworthy, woman-centred care, promptly report concerns or errors. Emphasis is placed on understanding team roles and contributing effectively to team working.

General duties include administrative tasks such as managing clinical records. The postholder is expected to maintain professionalism, challenge discrimination, promote equality, and uphold legal and ethical responsibilities.

Training responsibilities involve attending mandatory sessions, developing skills and knowledge, participating in appraisals, and supporting trainees. Ensuring a safe environment is vital, including hazard checks, equipment maintenance, infection prevention, and incident reporting.

Additional responsibilities cover assisting in obstetric and neonatal emergencies, supporting health promotion and screening activities, and understanding relevant mental health policies. The role includes promoting physical and emotional wellbeing and escalating concerns as needed.

Infant feeding duties require supporting breastfeeding and formula feeding and promoting skin-to-skin contact and responsive feeding.
About us
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.

Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

• Being open and honest
• Ensuring people feel cared for
• Showing respect to everyone

We are committed to developing a culture of continuous improvement by embedding the principles of our Improvement System.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.
DBS Checks and Costs
Any applicants who are offered posts requiring a DBS check as part of their employment check will have the cost of this check (at the current rate) deducted from their salary. Please see link in Supporting Information section for more details on DBS checks and costs.
Details
Date posted: 09 November 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 2
Salary: £25,272 a year
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time
Reference number: C9365-26-0878
Job locations: Charles Hastings Way, Worcester, Worcestershire, WR5 1DD, United Kingdom
Job responsibilities
The primary role of the Maternity Care Assistant is to assist, support and work in collaboration with the midwife and the wider multidisciplinary team; to provide a safe and holistic approach to women centred care.

Key Duties:

• Develops and maintains positive relationships, respects the womans and her families wishes, with kindness, compassion and empathy.
• Should be trustworthy, provide woman centred care and support, and take ownership for mistakes by reporting concerns or errors to a registered practitioner in a timely manner.
• Recognises the Maternity Care Assistants scope of practice within national frameworks.
• Understands main principles of team working and can define their own role and role of others.

Administrative Duties

• Keeps complete, clear, accurate and timely records.
• Provide administrative support to the maternity team.

Professional Attitudes and responsibilities

• Convey an approachable and professional manner to all mothers and their families.
• Demonstrates an awareness of discriminatory attitudes and challenges this behaviour, with reference to age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage, civil partnership, pregnancy, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation.
• Is aware of legal and ethical responsibilities in relation to own role including the need to work in ways agreed by the employer.
• Does not project own experiences and values onto other and demonstrates understanding of own role and contribution in creating inclusive, equitable care.
• Is aware of organisational aims, objectives, policies and values that relate to the MCA role.
• Recognizes the importance of maintaining own health, wellbeing and resilience to ensure that personal performance and judgement is not affected by ill-health.
• Ensure that knowledge of local safeguarding policy and procedure is maintained.
• Understands and follows principles of safeguarding and protection and adheres to local security procedures.

Training Responsibilities

• Attend all statutory and mandatory training as and when required.
• Maintains and develops own skills and knowledge with training accessed where required. Keeps evidence of personal development, prepares for and participates in appraisal.
• Participate in annual individual performance review process, whereby objectives will be agreed, performance monitored, and personal development needs discussed.
• Is always welcoming and takes an interest in the education and development of Trainee Maternity Care assistants and Trainee Maternity Support workers in acquiring skills and knowledge.

Safe Environment

• Ensure own actions promote a positive and safe environment. This includes checking the clinical area for hazards, ensuring the working order of equipment, reporting any concerns, faults or breakages to the appropriate person in a timely manner.
• Demonstrates the ability to respond flexibly to needs of the working environment.
• Demonstrates safe and evidence-based practice in all skills and procedures stated within job description.
• Ensure that each woman feels safe and knows how to access support if required.
• Uses a range of techniques for infection prevention and control. Using PPE as required.
• Act responsibly in respect of colleagues health, safety and welfare following safety at work guidance and protocol.
• Ensure the cleanliness of equipment in all clinical and non-clinical areas and assist the midwife in appropriately preparing the birthing environment.
• Ensure adequate stock levels are maintained in all clinical settings, and equipment is available; escalate any depletion of stock or resources in a timely manner.
• Assist in stocking up and cleaning all home birth team equipment if required.
• Report any incidents using the local risk management reporting system and escalate such incidents appropriately and in a timely manner. To ensure they are following local health and safety guidance.
• Understands the importance of following standard operating procedures, protocols, policies and guidelines to promote safety.
• Understands the importance of courage and candour, recognizing and reporting behaviours or errors that could result in poor outcomes for women and their families.
• Supports audit and service improvement initiatives and keeps up to date with changes in policy and practice.

Care of the Woman

• Escort women and their families between clinical areas as required.
• Assist with the admission, orientation and discharge of women and their babies in accordance with local policy and guidance.
• Communicate respectfully, effectively and timely manner when speaking with women and the wider MDT, utilising verbal and non-verbal skills.
• Understand and gains valid consent prior to action or providing care.
• Manages delegated tasks effectively and in a timely manner for which they have received training, ensuring basic care needs for women and babies are met. Reports completion of tasks and any finding to an appropriate practitioner.
• Assists in effective care planning and evaluation by sharing relevant information in a timely manner with members of the MDT.
• Understands the benefits of continuity of carer and how this applies within own role.
• Recognizes and responds to signs of discomfort and anxiety or concerns raised by promptly reporting them to an appropriate practitioner.
• Support women during clinical procedures and act as chaperone when requested to do so by the midwifery or obstetric team.
• Shares knowledge and teaches skills that empower women and their families to safely and effectively care for themselves.
• Provide support with personal care to labouring women if asked to do so, and under the supervision of the midwife.
• Assist in the maintenance and understand the principles of good bladder care, such and hydration and to document accurately the fluid balance.
• Assist in the nutrition needs of women.
• Assist women with mobilisation following surgical procedures under direction of the midwife.
• Notices vulnerability, changing or additional needs and reports these to a suitably qualified colleague to take forward.
• Acts sensitively, compassionately and respectfully in situations where the family unit is separated e.g. if mother/baby are critically ill. Make sure the family members are updated with accurate information by the appropriate team member.
• Ensures tasks that separate families are kept to a minimum and are carried out with kindness and empathy.
• Acts sensitively, compassionately and respectfully during times of bereavement and loss and follows care plans within scope of their role.

Obstetric and Neonatal Emergencies

• Support and assist the midwife in the womans preparation for transfer to theatre.
• Recognises and acts upon within own parameters of competence any abnormal events or emergencies, escalating to the multidisciplinary team through the appropriate means, in a timely manner. Where a registered practitioner is not present, they should initiate immediate first aid whilst awaiting arrival of appropriately qualified practitioner.

Health Promotion and Screening

• Directs queries regarding local and national services to support women and their families to a suitably qualified colleague to take forward.
• To seek support from a qualified practitioner when a woman shows a desire to make changes to health behaviours.
• To be aware of and understand the current policy and service frameworks for mental health.
• Understands the aims and principles of health promotion, protection and improvement.
• Appreciates the importance of recognizing and supporting physical and emotional health and wellbeing and actively encourage women and their families to talk about health and wellbeing and escalate to midwife to enable appropriate care pathway.

Infant Feeding

• Be able to describe the key practices that facilitate the initiation and have the knowledge and skills to support maintenance of breastfeeding.
• Understand and have an overview of circumstances which can affect lactation and breastfeeding and be able to support mothers to overcome common challenges and make appropriate referrals when necessary.
• Be able to support parents who formula feed to do so responsively and as safely as possible including minimising the risks, to make up feeds as safely as possible, how to sterilise equipment, how to hold a baby and pace the feeds.
• Importance of skin-to-skin contact to support infant feeding and how to facilitate this within practice promoting responsive feeding to feeding cues.
• Understanding principles and mechanisms of attachment and positioning for effective feeding in line with BFI standards.
• Understands how to protect breastfeeding should supplementation be required.
• Expression and storage of breastmilk to include hand and pump expression technique and the use of cup feeding.

Care of the Newborn

• Observe the overall wellbeing of the newborn and escalate any concerns to named Midwife or multi-professional team in a timely manner.
• Provide practical support and transition to parenthood for new parents when caring for their newborn.

Use of AI in writing application forms
We value originality and integrity in our hiring process. Applications should be your own work, and AI-generated content is not acceptable and may result in your application being disqualified. We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to showcase your skills and experiences authentically.
Person Specification
Knowledge and skills
Essential

• Awareness of Health and Safety issues
• Knowledge and understanding of data protection confidentially
• Approachable manner with good interpersonal skills
• Effective written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to prioritise workload
• Ability to work without direct supervision
• Able to identify when to escalate issues/concerns
• Ability to work as part of team
• Demonstrate attention to detail
• IT / computer skills
• Adaptable and flexible approach to work
• Positive attitude to training and development
• Ability to work 24-hour shift pattern, including weekends and bank holidays

Desirable

• Understanding of Safeguarding issues
• Understanding of the role and own professional boundaries

Qualifications
Essential

• GCSE Maths and English Grades A-C, Levels 4-9, Functional Skills Level 2 or equivalent
• NVQ Level 2 in Health care or equivalent experience
• Commit to undertake in-house training

Desirable

• Care certificate

Experience
Desirable

• Previous experience of working with members of the public
• One years formal maternity care experience in a hospital/birth centre
• Experience of using hospital patient record system
• Experience of working in an acute hospital setting
• Experience of providing high quality care

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details
Employer name: Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Address: Charles Hastings Way, Worcester, Worcestershire, WR5 1DD, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/
Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Practice Development Midwife for Support Workers, Lorraine Grummett, lorraine.grummett@nhs.net
Supporting documents
Flexible Working and Support to Staff, An Inclusive Employer, Working for Us, Privacy notice: Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust's privacy notice