Ok, we've got the problem, it seems to be pretty widespread and unacknowledged unfortunatley, we've got a loose idea for a focus and how you term it, we've got a vague reason why its needed and not currently covered. Still needs work but I think its fairly easily achievable.
Your next problem is how how do you get hospitals and officials to acknowledge there is a problem within their institution? And how do you persuade them to actually change their institutionalised procedures and change the practices of their staff. On no budget. What line will the unions take on this issue too? Its worth thinking about. Preempt whats they'll throw back and have all the answers ready. Make it water tight.
The 'getting them to listen' bit is actually the hardest. The experience with Bounty was that the hospitals were really dismissive of questionnaires, being biased or unrepresentative and usually they had a counter one to pull out of their backsides.
The obvious way would be with legal test cases, but given the nature of this, and sheer scale of it, there are a few problems with that too. Having enough people to come forward publicly to do that is perhaps unlikely and would be traumatic for those involved. Even if you proved it in one hospital, they could still then say, it was an isolated thing and one hospital and not endemic throughout the entire system.
The other way would be with whistleblowers who work in maternity. Again difficult.
You need to do something to effectively force every Trust to sit up and take note. So you need to play hardball about what they are liable for and catch them out with their own information or policies, by pretty much showing they are flawed in someway.
Its no good just to say this is wrong because the issue concerned has been going for so many years in this way and despite however far women's rights have come, no ones really managed to tackle attitudes in maternity AND within the public. Its all covered up in the whole 'you should just be grateful you and your baby are alive' thing.
How do you show, that these attitudes are allowing maternity in the UK to be massively under achieving and failing women and how do you show that what you are proposing is affordable within the financial contraints of the time?
This one is actually the million dollar question. All the letter writing in the world actually won't do a lot, if you don't have the jugular vein to go for in the first place.
I think I have a few ideas up my sleeve for this one, but this is where its tough and where people really need to think and I'd really like other people to come up with a few too. Especially from people within the profession, as I think they'll have some cracking thoughts on this.
Think evidence. Think proving something. Think where are their policies clearly non-compliant with existing law, but no one has really thought about it or challenged it. Its there because the problem clearly exists; you've just got to pin it down in a way thats undeniable and makes it very difficult for them to make excuses for or just ignore.