In 2016, the government in England committed to transform access to  perinatal mental health care as part of the implementation of NHS England’s Five Year Forward View. This followed a long period of campaigning, by professionals and people with lived experience, to highlight the urgent need for specialist mental health care for women and birthing people in pregnancy and following childbirth. 

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When funding became available to enhance existing perinatal mental health services, it was apparent that there was inadequate specialist clinical expertise to meet the expansion plans. With this in mind, Dr Liz McDonald, a recognised national leader in perinatal psychiatry, devised a training programme whose aim was to develop the clinical, leadership and academic competencies of general adult consultant psychiatrists who were to take up new specialist consultant perinatal psychiatrist posts. NHS England funded the project and the Royal College of Psychiatrists kindly agreed to host it.  

Dr Liz McDonald assembled a team of national clinical and academic experts to deliver a 10 day masterclass programme. These included Dr Lucinda Green and Dr Maddalena Miele who subsequently also became joint leads for the programme. The teaching model included a combination of didactic teaching, case discussion and small group work. It covered core topics in perinatal psychiatry, including risk, safeguarding and perinatal mental health service delivery. There was a central focus on the mother, infant and family, hearing the voices of lived experience and co-producing services. 

The success of the masterclasses led to Health Education England and NHS England funding and supporting the roll-out of this programme to benefit the expanding perinatal psychiatry workforce. Training was provided to new consultants, senior trainees and SAS psychiatrists working in NHS perinatal mental health teams. Access was expanded to include psychiatrists working in the devolved nations of the UK and the Republic of Ireland as their perinatal services were established and expanded. 

The masterclass team has delivered training to over 500 psychiatrists and feedback has been consistently outstanding. Participants describe how the masterclasses equip them with the knowledge, confidence and skills to be perinatal psychiatrists and inspire them to provide high quality services for women and families in the perinatal period. 

Funding from NHS England for the perinatal psychiatry masterclasses ceased in 2025. However, the need for high quality training and education remains. For this reason, Dr Lucinda Green, Dr Liz McDonald and Dr Maddalena Miele decided to set up Perinatal Psychiatry Masterclasses Ltd to continue to provide their highly regarded training programme.
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