Challenge
Tommy’s National Midwife Helpline is one of the charity’s flagship services, providing specialist clinical and emotional support through an expert midwifery team.

As demand continues to grow, Tommy’s faces two linked challenges:

  • Capacity constraints, with a limited number of midwives able to answer calls within weekday 9–5 operating hours

  • Limited reach: While those who accessed the service received high-quality support, overall awareness remains low, particularly among underserved communities who would benefit most.


Tommy’s wanted to strengthen and modernise the helpline without compromising quality, improving clarity, accessibility and efficiency while addressing barriers to equitable access.

Solution

We worked with Tommy’s to develop an end-to-end strategy for the future of the National Midwife Helpline, beginning with a blank canvas and deep insight work with families and stakeholders.

The work confirmed that the quality of the service itself was a major strength — the priority was improving how people find it, understand it, and access it.

The resulting strategy set out a coordinated programme of six workstreams to strengthen the helpline into a clearer, more accessible and inclusive Tommy’s Midwifery Service, including:

  • Better data and insight capture

  • Sharper positioning and service boundaries

  • Pilots to expand accessibility and channels

  • Targeted work to improve equity and reach

  • Capability and efficiency improvements, including back-office AI automation opportunities

  • A continuous improvement approach to future readiness

    A practical roadmap was developed to support delivery over the next 12–18 months.

    Impact
    The strategy has provided Tommy’s with a clear, actionable programme to:

  • Improve reach to underserved communities

  • Reduce administrative burden on midwives

  • Strengthen service clarity and consistency

  • Pilot new access routes safely and sustainably

  • Build a stronger evidence base for impact, fundraising and influence


Shared success measures include ambitions such as:

  • ≥25% increase in reach to underrepresented groups

  • 20% reduction in admin time per midwife

  • Quarterly insight reviews to support learning and improvement


This work lays the foundation for Tommy’s to scale access and impact over time, while protecting the quality and trust at the heart of the helpline.