Birth Companions wins prestigious 2023 GSK IMPACT award
We are delighted to announce that Birth Companions has been selected as one of 10 winners of the prestigious 2023 GSK IMPACT Awards, delivered in partnership with leading health and care charity The King’s Fund, for our work to improve the health and wellbeing of women who experience disadvantage and inequality during pregnancy and early motherhood. These awards are a mark of excellence in the charity sector, recognising outstanding work by small and medium sized charities.
We’re pleased that the award judges have recognised our strong partnerships across the health, social care, justice and voluntary sectors, and our capacity to use these to influence national policy decisions about the way services are designed and delivered. We’re pleased, too, that judges noted our innovative approach to listening to and acting on the voices of the women we support. Members of our 50-strong Lived Experience Team share their expertise with other charities, services, public bodies and academics, so it is brilliant to see this aspect of Birth Companions’ recognised so strongly in this award.
Katie Pinnock, Director, UK Charitable Partnerships at GSK said: “Birth Companions does exemplary work in prisons and the community to support some of the most vulnerable pregnant women in our society, helping them to give their babies the best possible start in life. Through their impressive 50-strong lived experience team, they put women’s voices at the heart of everything they do and use their frontline insight to influence at the highest levels. Despite its small size, the charity has achieved incredible impact working at the challenging intersection of maternity services with criminal justice, the NHS, social services and the immigration system. Through exceptionally strong partnership working it has been a catalyst for change in the reform of maternity services for women in the criminal justice system.”
Commenting on the award, Naomi Delap, Director of Birth Companions, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have won a prestigious GSK IMPACT Award. At Birth Companions we work tirelessly to ensure that women who experience disadvantage and inequality during pregnancy and early motherhood, and their babies, get the care they need and are entitled to. The award is a very public recognition of that work, and the impact we are achieving in our field”.
For more information on the GSK IMPACT Awards, visit www.kingsfund.org.uk/gskimpactawards.