Professional Lead Midwifery and Lead Midwife for Education Lesley Kay

Dr Lesley Kay is a Principal Lecturer, the Professional Lead for Midwifery and the Lead Midwife for Education (LME). Lesley has been a midwife for 24 years and has worked in academic since 2009. Highlights of Lesley’s career include her work with the NMC on the Fitness to Practise Panels of the Conduct and Competence Committee and her work with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) as a UK Volunteer Midwife Educator for their Bangladesh Twinning Project. Lesley’s research interests are centred on women's expectations and experiences of birth, global and respectful midwifery care. Her PhD study, undertaken at the University of Central Lancashire, considered how women from two different generations came to understand birth in the context of their own experience but also in the milieu of other women’s stories.

In her role at UH Lesley is responsible for providing professional leadership and academic management of midwifery. This includes the co-ordination of teaching staff to ensure the efficient and high-quality delivery of modules and programmes within the midwifery portfolio. As a senior member of the school staff, Lesley is the key contact point for professional midwifery matters and can advise on a range of issues from curricula content to strategic directions for midwifery. As the LME, Lesley advises on academic standards and quality in midwifery education and is accountable to the NMC in ensuring that the NMC Standards for Education are met so that UH midwifery programmes are fit for purpose and meet the needs of the future midwifery workforce.