PReCePT

PReCePT stands for the prevention of cerebral palsy in preterm labour. It was selected by NHS England as one of the seven programmes for adoption and spread across the national AHSN Network during 2018-2020.

PReCePT was developed by the West of England AHSN in collaboration with University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and involved both patients and staff. The intervention was adopted by all five maternity units in the West of England. Since the launch of the project in August 2014, phase one of PReCePT has prevented seven cases of cerebral palsy across the region.

This evidence-based, cost-effective project was designed to help reduce cerebral palsy in babies through the increased antenatal administration of magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) to mothers during preterm labour, costing from £1 per individual dose.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 babies are born before 30 weeks’ gestation in England per year and stand to benefit from the full national roll-out of the PReCePT programme.

Successful scaling up of PReCePT is likely to prevent several hundred cases of cerebral palsy per year, based on highest grade evidence. This work will be led by the West of England AHSN working in partnership with all 15 AHSNs across the country. This work also aligns with the Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative (MNHSC) change drivers and the national Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs).

PReCePT is also running in tandem with the PReCePT Study, a research trial nested within the national programme, funded by the Health Foundation. This aims to assess the effectiveness of two different quality improvement approaches in implementing the project across a subset of maternity units. Of the 152 maternity units across England in the PReCePT Programme, 40 maternity units have been randomly selected to be part of the PReCePT study. Within this group, 13 units are receiving enhanced QI support from the Study team, and 27 units are being observed while implementing the standard QI support model.

PReCePT is the first ever perinatal programme delivered at scale across England, bringing together midwives, obstetricians and neonatologists in every maternity unit in the country. As part of this national programme each AHSN now has regional and clinical leads, as well as teams of midwives implementing the project. The AHSN network has developed various resources to help those implementing project. 

Contact: Suzi van Es, Programme Manager Innovation Adoption & PReCePT Programme Lead. Tel: 02382 020 840