Professor Jane Sandall CBE

Professor Jane Sandall is a midwife and social scientist and has been conducting research in the maternal health care field for 25 years. Her research draws on the clinical and social sciences and focuses on implementation and impact of safety and quality strategies at a system and frontline level. Key themes include models of care to improve co-ordination, staffing, skillmix and outcome, escalation pathways for the critically ill. Recent research includes leading implementation research in hybrid effectiveness implementation trials looking at the effectiveness and implementation of complex interventions. For example: behavioural interventions in pregnant women who are obese, CRADLE, an automated device used by frontline health workers to improve detection of shock and hypertension in low income countries, the implementation of telemedicine in intensive care and implementation of a fetal growth assessment programme.

Jane is leading research looking at how midwife continuity of care may improve quality of care, experience and outcomes for women at higher risk of pre-term birth and a programme on reducing the impact of inequity on experience and outcome for disadvantaged and BAME women and infants. Her research in low- and middle-income settings includes the implementation assessment in MRC funded CRADLE trial, which was awarded the Newton Prize, health service research in GCRF-funded PRECISE, and maternal health systems strengthening research in NIHR funded King’s College London Global Health Research Unit (ASSET). Jane also contributed to the Lancet series on Midwifery and Caesarean Section.

Jane has been an advisor in the areas of maternity care, midwifery policy and practice to government departments and agencies. These include National Maternity Strategy Steering Group external advisor – Ireland (ministerial appointment), and she currently contributes to NICE Implementation Strategy Group, NHS England Maternity transformation: Continuity of Carer Expert Group, NIHR Advanced Fellowship Panel, MRC-NIHR Global Maternal and Neonatal Health Panel, RCOG-SANDS Research Advisory Committee, WHO South-East Asia Region Technical Advisory Group for Women’s and Children’s Health (SEAR-TAG), and WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group of Experts (STAGE) for maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health and nutrition.

Jane has been an NIHR Senior Investigator since 2015 and was awarded a RCM Honorary Fellowship in 2019, Society of Reproductive and Infant Psychology 2018 lecturer prize for outstanding contributions to research in 2018, Distinguished Visiting Professor Award, University of Technology, Sydney in 2017 and honorary doctorate in 2014, a CBE in 2016, and a King’s Supervisory Excellence Award in 2014.