Gill Walton

Who Gill Walton is

Gill Walton is Chief Executive, General Secretary and Chief Midwife of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), the UK's only trade union and professional organisation dedicated to midwifery, representing over 50,000 members. Her focus at the RCM is to advocate for members as both a trade union and a professional association, ensuring their voices are heard by policy makers, employers and other stakeholders. Before joining the RCM she was Director of Midwifery and Maternity Services at Portsmouth Hospitals, and held similar posts at the Royal Berkshire Hospitals, Barking Havering and Redbridge, and the John Radcliffe in Oxford. She began her career in nursing at University College Hospital and trained as a midwife at the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton. Walton is known for her sustained public arguments around midwifery workforce shortages, maternity safety, and the retention of midwives, and has led multidisciplinary safety initiatives with partner bodies including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

References for this biography

1. 1.Staff – Royal College of Midwives — Confirms current role as CEO, General Secretary and Chief Midwife; career history including Director of Midwifery posts; RCM's dual trade-union and professional-association mandate
2. 2.Gill Walton – Royal College of Midwives — Confirms role title, early nursing training at UCH, midwifery training at Princess Anne Hospital Southampton, and Director of Midwifery posts held before joining RCM; signposts X/Twitter account
3. 3.ROYAL COLLEGE OF MIDWIVES (THE) – Companies House — Confirms registered office address: 10-18 Union Street, London, SE1 1SZ
4. 4.RCM tells politicians how to fix the midwifery staffing crisis – RCM media release, 29 February 2024 — Evidences Walton speaking at APPG on Maternity and launching the 'How to Fix' guide; quotes on midwife shortage and retention
5. 5.RCM response to Ockenden Review – RCM media release, March 2022 — Evidences Walton's public statement on the final Ockenden Review and RCM's pledge on maternity safety
6. 6.RCM warns slowdown in midwifery workforce growth – RCM media release, December 2025 — Confirms Walton's continuing role as Chief Executive and her public position on workforce retention and international recruitment
7. 7.Contact us – Royal College of Midwives — Confirms organisational press contact: media@rcm.org.uk and 020 7312 3456
8. 8.Gill Walton (@GillWaltonRCM) on X — X account self-identified as CEO and General Secretary of @MidwivesRCM, corroborated by RCM's own staff page

Notable achievements

• Led the RCM's publication of 'How to Fix the Midwifery Staffing Crisis' (February 2024), a pre-election guide presented to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Maternity setting out practical solutions to the UK-wide midwife shortage. Source ↗
• Issued the RCM's formal response to the final Ockenden Review (March 2022) — the largest ever review of NHS maternity services — pledging the RCM's role in safety improvements across all UK maternity services. Source ↗
• Appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live with Naga Munchetty to discuss chronic midwifery workforce shortages and their impact on maternity safety (January 2024). Source ↗

What Gill Walton has said

• “Midwives are often the only professional a pregnant woman sees regularly and alone, which makes them uniquely placed to spot the signs of domestic abuse and respond with care.”

  Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives · Maternity & neonatal · 29 Sept 2026 · About 20,000 women a year tell midwives they are domestic violence victims ↗

• “It's a step in the right direction. It is also a consolidated, across the board increase which the RCM had called for.”

  RCM general secretary · NHS & care workforce/staffing · 8 Sept 2026 · Nursing union opinion split on 5.5% pay rise ↗

• “These findings highlight the immense pressure midwives are working under due to chronic workforce shortages. When midwives are stretched too thin it becomes harder to provide the attentive care that allows them to truly listen and respond to concerns.”

  Chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · One in five women in England say their concerns were ignored during childbirth, survey finds ↗

• “This real-terms pay cut is an insult to midwives who work 100,000 unpaid hours every week just to keep maternity services running. Our members are sick and tired of these broken promises to sort out pay and staffing and their anger is justified.”

  General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · Health unions call 3.3% pay rise for 1.4m NHS staff in England ‘an insult’ ↗

• “I'm absolutely sure it has increased their anxiety at this time in their pregnancy... This is just the tip of the iceberg, really.”

  Chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives · Maternity & neonatal · 27 Aug 2026 · Health boss resigns over maternity unit closure ↗

Where Gill Walton has been quoted

1. North Devon maternity service could reopen by end of Septemberbbc.co.uk · 30 Sept 2026
2. About 20,000 women a year tell midwives they are domestic violence victimstheguardian.com · 29 Sept 2026
3. Nursing union opinion split on 5.5% pay risenursingtimes.net · 8 Sept 2026
4. One in five women in England say their concerns were ignored during childbirth, survey findstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
5. Health unions call 3.3% pay rise for 1.4m NHS staff in England ‘an insult’theguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
6. Health boss resigns over maternity unit closurebbc.co.uk · 27 Aug 2026

Related media coverage

Recent UK press coverage of their topics — not necessarily citing them directly.

• 'Being able to stay in hospital with our son meant everything'BBC
• New funding targets Kentucky’s maternal mortality rateSpectrum News
• Harris County Is the Worst Place in the US to Give Birth as a Black Woman. One Artist Is Doing Something About It.Houstonia Magazine

Contact & links

• Staff pagehttps://rcm.org.uk/staff/
• Xhttps://twitter.com/gillwaltonrcmpublished here ↗
• Press office emailmedia@rcm.org.ukpublished here ↗
• Press office phone020 7312 3456published here ↗

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.