Midwife supporting information: newly qualified and experienced NHS posts (with example)

Updated · By the Tick the Spec team

NHS midwifery posts are commonly advertised at Band 5 for newly qualified midwives, often with progression to Band 6 after a preceptorship period, and at Band 6 and above for experienced midwives. The person specification requires registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as a midwife, or being due to register, and usually asks for evidence of safe, woman-centred care, communication, recognising and escalating concerns, team working and commitment to learning. Your supporting information should show each with specific, anonymised examples and reflect the NMC Code and standards of proficiency for midwives.

What the person specification usually asks for

  • Qualifications: an approved midwifery qualification and NMC registration as a midwife (or awaiting registration).
  • Experience: placement experience across antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care, community and specialist areas; for experienced midwives, the relevant setting such as the labour ward, birth centre or community.
  • Knowledge: physiological birth and recognising complications, safeguarding, infant feeding, perinatal mental health, documentation standards.
  • Skills: communication and informed decision-making with women and families, prioritising, escalation, working in the multidisciplinary team, digital records.
  • Values: compassion, respect for choice, advocacy, honesty, and the trust's own values.

Step by step

  1. Start with registration and your expected date if newly qualifying.
  2. Choose examples across the pathway: antenatal, labour and postnatal, so the panel sees breadth.
  3. Show informed choice: how you supported a woman to make a decision about her care, with balanced information.
  4. Show recognising and escalating concerns, with a structured handover.
  5. Show safeguarding and perinatal mental health awareness.
  6. Show learning: what you want from preceptorship, or how your practice has developed.

Worked example (fictional)

This is invented. The student, units and families are fictional, and no real clinical details are used.

Applicant: Fatima, a final-year midwifery student, applying for a Band 5 newly qualified midwife post with a preceptorship programme.

Registration. I complete my BSc Midwifery in September and will apply to join the NMC register as a midwife as soon as I am eligible.

Informed choice. In an antenatal clinic, a woman told me she was unsure whether to accept an induction of labour that had been offered. With my practice supervisor, I explained the reasons it had been recommended, the alternatives, and what each would involve, using plain language and the unit's information leaflet, and gave her time to ask questions. I documented her decision to accept a membrane sweep first and to discuss induction again at her next appointment.

Recognising and escalating concerns. During a labour I was supporting, I noticed changes on intermittent auscultation of the baby's heart rate. I told my supervisor immediately, who confirmed my findings, and I helped prepare for a review by the obstetric registrar, using SBAR to summarise. I documented times and actions clearly. The experience reinforced for me that acting quickly on small changes matters.

Postnatal care and infant feeding. On the postnatal ward I supported a first-time mother who was finding breastfeeding painful. I observed a feed, helped her adjust positioning and attachment, and referred her to the infant feeding team, who later confirmed a tongue-tie. She was grateful to have been listened to.

Safeguarding and mental health. At a community postnatal visit I noticed a mother seemed very low and withdrawn. I asked her about her mood using the questions we had been taught, and with her agreement my supervisor arranged a referral to the perinatal mental health team and informed her GP.

Learning. I would value your preceptorship programme and rotation through the labour ward and community, and I am keen to complete newborn examination training in time.

If you are an experienced midwife

Show leadership on shifts, supporting students and preceptees, specialist roles such as bereavement or infant feeding, involvement in audits or guideline updates, and how your practice is current. See Band 6 specialist roles for evidencing responsibility.

Common mistakes

  • Listing skills without examples.
  • Identifiable details: dates, rare conditions, unusual circumstances.
  • Taking credit for decisions made by your supervisor or the obstetric team.
  • Missing informed choice and advocacy, which are central to midwifery.
  • Not mentioning registration status.

Pay

In England, from 1 April 2026, Agenda for Change Band 5 is £32,073 to £39,043 and Band 6 is £39,959 to £48,117 a year for full-time staff, before any high cost area supplement or unsocial hours payments.

Tick the Spec's free shortlisting sheet maps your CV and placement experience to each criterion in the job pack. For a closely related guide, see Band 5 staff nurse supporting information.

Sources

All guides