Maternity Support Worker in Taunton

We are looking for a caring, motivated, and compassionate individual to join our maternity team at Musgrove Park Hospital as a Maternity Support Worker (MSW). As part of our multidisciplinary maternity team, you will play an essential role in supporting women, their partners, and babies during their hospital stay. Working under the direction of registered midwives, you will contribute to providing safe, individualised, and high-quality care in a busy, supportive environment. This role is ideal for someone with a passion for family-centred care, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work effectively as part of a team. You will also be a role model for junior maternity support workers and student midwives, helping to uphold our Trust values of kindness, respect, and teamwork.

Main duties of the job:

• Assist midwives in delivering care to women, their babies, and families in line with agreed care plans.
• Support women with infant feeding, including breastfeeding and bottle-feeding, and promote parenting skills such as bathing, nappy changing, and newborn care.
• Carry out observations including temperature, pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and urinalysis, reporting any concerns promptly.
• Undertake newborn care including weighing babies, blood spot tests, and neonatal observations.
• Provide practical support such as preparing clinical areas, maintaining stock, and escorting women and babies as required.
• Promote health education in areas such as breastfeeding, smoking cessation, obesity reduction, and newborn safety.
• Support the admission and discharge process under the supervision of a registered midwife.
• Maintain accurate records to ensure safe, consistent, and effective care.

About us:

At Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, we are committed to supporting our employees with a range of benefits designed to enhance your professional and personal life. We offer flexible working options to help you balance work and life, NHS pension scheme for long-term financial security, generous annual leave allowance to recharge and relax, and a strong focus on career development to help you grow and achieve your potential. Additionally, you will gain access to our Blue Light Card, unlocking exclusive discounts on shopping, dining, and leisure activities, as well as NHS-specific perks to support you both inside and outside of work. We are proud to foster a diverse, skilled, and inclusive workforce, and we encourage applications from all backgrounds.

Job responsibilities:

• Work as a valued member of the maternity team, supporting midwives and colleagues in the safe delivery of care.
• Provide holistic support to women and families, demonstrating compassion, empathy, and respect at all times.
• Deliver both direct care (e.g., assisting with feeding, wound dressings, observations) and indirect care (e.g., clerical support, data entry, stock management) to ensure smooth running of the service.
• Contribute to health promotion activities, supporting women to make informed choices about their care and their baby's health.
• Participate in mentoring and supporting junior colleagues and student midwives as appropriate.
• Engage in training and personal development opportunities, ensuring your practice is safe, effective, and aligned with Trust policies and professional standards.
• Be adaptable and flexible, able to work across the ward rotation and cover a full range of shifts to meet the needs of the service.
• Uphold the Trust's commitment to safeguarding, infection control, confidentiality, and equality of care.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a supportive and dynamic maternity team, making a real difference to women and their families at one of the most important times of their lives.

Person Specification:

• GCSE Maths and English or Functional Skills Maths and English, level 1 or equivalent.
• NVQ3 in Healthcare, OR, prepared to undertake a level 3 NVQ in Healthcare and complete within 1 year (to achieve KSF Foundation Gateway).
• Basic life support training.
• Previous experience in Maternity care environment.
• Previous experience in a healthcare environment.
• Access to a Means of travel to work.
• Evidence of a good standard of Literacy/English language skills.
• Able to transport and move essential equipment / people with appropriate adaptations if required.
• Must be able to work unsocial hours, including night duty and have a flexible approach to working hours.
• Clinically competent and evidence of completed training in phlebotomy, Manual BP's, urinalysis.
• 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.