Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital achieves Platinum Baby Charter Accreditation

These are the evaluation findings of the Bliss Baby Charter re-accreditation assessment, which was carried out virtually with the Royal Devon and Exeter neonatal unit on 6 June 2022. The assessment was carried out by Bliss Baby Charter Programme Lead Holly Sullivan, and Volunteer Assessors Lynne Wainwright and Claire Gray. The Baby Charter lead for the unit was Amy Stone.

Amy said, “The team at Exeter neonatal unit are so proud to receive the Bliss Baby Charter's platinum accreditation. This award is an amazing achievement for our unit and recognises our commitment to delivering the highest standards of individualised family integrated care. This accreditation acknowledges the hard work of the whole team and their determination to support families as partners in care, placing them at the centre of all we do.”

Royal Devon and Exeter show exemplary family-centred care, with a truly individualised approach to every family. The unit is committed to ensuring that families are supported with their specific needs and has specific resources and procedures in place to support families who may be facing health inequalities. All members of staff are dedicated to ensuring families are as involved in their baby’s care and decision-making as possible, and this was reflected in parent interviews.

The use of a counsellor is fully embedded into practice, and SNUG provide excellent peer support. All parents interviewed spoke of a dedicated culture of parental involvement, where they were continually treated with respect, compassion and dignity. All parents were also aware of all of the support available on the unit, as well as how they could encourage developmental care.

Mum Eloise gave birth to her baby Ellis at 29 weeks. Ellis received care on the unit and she said, “The care we received from Exeter NNU was absolutely incredible, the staff went above and beyond with not only Ellis’ care but mine as well, we could not be more grateful to every single person who helped us on our journey.”