Wendy's wonderful service comes to an end after nearly half a century with NHS
PICTURED: Wendy Sunderland-Evans (front row, third left) with her colleagues from the Jig-So team.
She spent over 40 years providing care and support to parents before and after pregnancy, now Wendy Sunderland-Evans is calling time on her successful NHS career.
Wendy, 65, started her registered nurse training in 1978, before going on to spend 34 years as a midwife. Following that, she became an instrumental figure in the Jig-So project, which helps transform the lives of hundreds of young Swansea families.
Jig-So is an early intervention project comprising midwives, family facilitators, nursery nurses and early language development workers.
It is a collaborative project between Swansea Bay University Health Board and Swansea Council, and is part of the Welsh Government’s Flying Start and Families First programmes.
PICTURED: Wendy Sunderland-Evans has enjoyed nearly 50 years of service in the NHS.
It supports young or vulnerable expectant parents aged 16-24 from 17 weeks of pregnancy and throughout the child’s infant years.
Wendy’s vast experience and knowledge has helped the project flourish for the past seven years.
As her career comes to its end, colleagues were keen to show their gratitude and appreciation for the impact she has made in the Jig-So project.
Swansea Council’s Mike Davies has worked alongside Wendy on Jig-So. He said: “Wendy has played a crucial role in the development of Jig-so from an early help service into a joint multi-agency safeguarding team of health and local authority staff, that supports the most vulnerable parents in Swansea in the antenatal and post-natal periods.
“We have benefitted from her wealth of experience to help us develop this forward thinking innovative multi-agency team. There are newborn into care guidelines that have been developed by Lancaster University and the Nuffield Observatory, and Wendy has played a huge role in helping us and midwifery services to meet these new guidelines.
“She is always calm and very supportive as a leader, and this helps because we are often dealing with very complex safeguarding cases that require a lot of support and planning alongside our midwifery and social work teams.
“She has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside and she is very well respected by our staff and all staff in health and social services.”
Wendy is now set to retire on September 28.
Becky Newton-Williams, Maternity Service Manager, said: "Wendy will be sorely missed by the patients she has supported, her colleagues and the services as a whole.
“She has not got the recognition she deserves for all of her hard work, supporting in usually very emotional circumstances- she supports not only her patients but her colleagues to ensure that everyone gets the care and time that they need during challenging periods.
“Everyone wishes her well on her retirement – it’s well deserved!”
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