Last week saw the final Scottish election manifestos published. As we move towards polling day, we are now writing to all candidates to make sure the voice of the midwifery community is clearly heard.
Across the manifestos, there are significant commitments and some real potential wins. Taken together, they show that parties have listened to RCM asks and that sustained campaigning is making a difference.
Safe staffing and workforce planning
On safe staffing, our core asks were clear: a national midwifery workforce plan, safe staffing ratios across all care settings, and no standing down of services.
There is encouraging alignment here. The Conservatives commit to preventing the closure or downgrading of maternity, neonatal or community hospitals during the lifetime of the parliament, alongside a comprehensive workforce strategy covering recruitment, retention, training and workplace culture. While midwifery is not named explicitly, these commitments closely reflect the asks of the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce.
Labour commit to a 10‑year NHS workforce plan and, like the Conservatives, oppose further centralisation of neonatal services. The Liberal Democrats also clearly commit to protecting maternity services and resisting centralisation, although they stop short of workforce guarantees.
The Green Party go further, with explicit commitments to minimum staffing ratios and an urgent review of safe staffing levels on maternity wards. We will be pressing for this to apply across all maternity care settings.
The SNP commit to positioning workforce planning as a core pillar of NHS recovery and to national‑level workforce planning. Independence for Scotland also commit to minimum staffing levels, although midwifery is not named.
Overall, there is now strong cross‑party recognition of the need for national workforce planning. Our role next is to ensure maternity, and specifically midwifery, is not lost within broader NHS plans.
A learning profession, strong support for students
On learning and education, there are some particularly positive developments, especially for students.
One of our key asks was a job guarantee on qualification. The SNP have committed to a three‑year job guarantee for NHS graduates, and we will be seeking clear detail on how this applies to student midwives.
Labour propose a “train here, stay here” model, with bursary recipients committing to five years’ service or repaying support. While this may result in jobs being available, we want midwives to stay because Scotland is the best place to work, not because of financial penalties.
On student finance, we have campaigned consistently for a bursary review. The SNP commitment to uprating the bursary in line with inflation is a clear win, and the Greens also commit to addressing bursary support.
We also asked for earn‑as‑you‑learn routes for maternity care assistants. The SNP commit to expanding and improving pathways into nursing and midwifery professions, and the Greens are explicit in their commitment to midwifery earn‑as‑you‑learn routes. We will be pressing to ensure these opportunities reach our whole community.
Improving health and prevention
All parties now make commitments on maternity services and prevention. This shared focus is welcome, but it must be delivered as a system‑wide approach that tackles staffing deficits, skill mix, and time for learning, all issues raised in inspections.
The RCM continues to call for a minimum of 52 hours of protected learning time for every midwife. Conservative commitments include an urgent review of maternity services and opposition to centralisation or closure. Labour commit to a maternity plan and reversing neonatal centralisation. The SNP commit to a maternity services review, increased support for new mums, expanded perinatal mental health care, and investigation into racial disparities in care. Liberal Democrats emphasise maternity services closer to home and meaningful community involvement in service design.
What happens next
There are clear wins here, and clear areas of alignment across parties. We will continue to follow up, press for detail, and keep you updated as we work to ensure that midwifery remains visible, valued and prioritised in the next parliament.
