You may want to review your Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) meetings at this stage and consider whether you would like to build on your basic format.
Some MVPs find it helpful to have separate meetings for service user members, either in between the main MVP meetings, or as a workshop immediately prior to the main MVP meeting. These can provide space for service users to ask questions, develop their understanding and plan activity outside the formal MVP meetings, which can be a valuable way of supporting service user involvement. It’s important though that this isn’t seen as a replacement for having sufficient service user involvement in your main MVP meetings.
As the range of improvement projects you’re working on grows, it may be helpful to set up multi-disciplinary sub-groups that include service user members to work on specific topics and report back to the MVP. These sub-groups may co-opt members as appropriate.
The MVP chair may invite individuals to attend meetings on an ad hoc basis to support specific topics on the agenda. The MVP chair may sometimes invite a service user to share their story in one of the main MVP meetings. The Humber Coast and Vale Maternity Voices group has developed guidelines (permission to share this is being sought) on how to support service users to share their stories in a way that is appropriate to a multidisciplinary MVP meeting.