Maternity care at a hospital has received a boost thanks to a new grant.

The James Paget Hospital has received nearly £60,000 to help improve the safety of the care delivered to mothers and their babies in complex or emergency situations.

Health Education England (HEE) has allocated funding as part of a national training programme to improve maternity safety.

The funding will be used to implement multidisciplinary training in key areas including maternity team leadership, human factors training, assessment of fetal growth, fetal monitoring of a baby's heart in labour and managing obstetric emergencies in the community.

Head of midwifery and gynaecology services at the hospital in Gorleston Jayne Utting said: 'We are thrilled to receive this funding which will help us implement training packages to make our maternity services even safer for mothers and their babies – and enhance their care experience.'

Director of nursing and deputy director of education and quality at HEE Lisa Bayliss-Pratt said: 'The response from service providers and partners in applying to make maternity services safer through education and training has been excellent, as well as the response from training providers to meet demand for course places.

'I am delighted that the trust has been awarded an allocation from the fund to progress their training and safety improvements, helping to make maternity services safer for mothers and babies, and enhance their care experience.'

HEE is supporting the multi-professional training recommendations from the 2016 National Maternity Review report, which was conducted by Baroness Julia Cumberlege.

She opened the upgraded facilities at the hospital in 2015, which include larger rooms with en-suite bathrooms/showers, room to mobilise in labour using birthing balls and other equipment, and a birthing pool.

Every trust receiving funding has committed to key actions to improve safety, including developing maternity safety improvement plans to be approved and monitored by trust boards, and appointing maternity safety champions.

Training programmes are due to be completed by next March.