Cardiff University Midwifery Team recognised for shaping the future of inclusive care
23 July 2026
Cardiff University's Midwifery Team has received the Chief Nursing Officer and Royal College of Midwives Wales Quality Innovation Award, recognising its work to create a more culturally inclusive learning environment for future midwives.
The award, presented on 8 July 2026, celebrates the team's commitment to ensuring that tomorrow's healthcare professionals are equipped to provide safe, inclusive and culturally responsive care to increasingly diverse communities.
The achievement reflects a collaborative effort across the Midwifery Team within the School of Healthcare Sciences to embed equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the student experience. By reviewing recruitment processes, curriculum design, assessment methods and practice learning opportunities, the team has worked to ensure students are prepared to meet the needs of the communities they will serve. By fostering a culture of inclusion and belonging, the programme also supports wider participation in midwifery education and helps build a workforce that better reflects the communities it serves.
As part of this work, teaching resources, simulation manikins and clinical scenarios have been enhanced to better represent a wider range of skin tones, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. These changes help students develop the clinical skills needed to recognise signs of deterioration across diverse populations and understand how cultural factors can influence care and outcomes.
By embedding inclusion throughout midwifery education, the team is helping to ensure the next generation of midwives is equipped to meet the needs of increasingly diverse communities. This work has the potential to improve outcomes for women, babies and families across Wales while contributing to a more equitable healthcare system for the future.
The award builds on another recent success for the team. In April 2026, Cardiff University became the only provider of midwifery education in Wales to achieve Gold accreditation through the Diverse Cymru Cultural Competence Accreditation Scheme, recognising its commitment to equality, diversity and cultural competence across teaching and learning.
Together, these achievements demonstrate how education can be a powerful driver of long-term change. The skills, knowledge and understanding students gain today will influence the care provided to women, babies and families across Wales for years to come.
We are delighted that the importance of this work has been recognised through this award. While we are enormously proud of what we have achieved, we also recognise that cultural inclusion is an ongoing process. As educators, we have a responsibility to prepare future generations of midwives to provide compassionate, inclusive and culturally responsive care. We remain committed to continually improving the educational experience for all our students so they can make a positive difference to the communities they will serve throughout their careers.
Looking ahead, the impact of this work will extend well beyond the classroom. By ensuring future midwives are equipped to meet the needs of diverse communities, the programme is helping to build a fairer, more inclusive healthcare system and improve outcomes for future generations of women, babies and families.
Read more about the award on the Royal College of Midwives website.