As a testament to true collaborative working, NELFT, Redbridge’s children's integrated universal and early intervention services, and its children’s centres have combined their efforts to support new mothers and babies with feeding issues to win UNICEF’s stage 2 Baby Friendly accreditation.

The Baby Friendly Initiative, set up by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, is a global programme, which provides a practical and effective way for health services to improve the care provided for all mothers and babies.

In the UK, the initiative works with UK public services to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding and to strengthen mother-baby and family relationships. Support for these relationships is important for all babies, not only those who are breastfed.

The award is given to health facilities, hospitals and universities after an assessment by a UNICEF team that shows recognised best practice standards are in place.

As part of the stage two assessment process, external assessors from UNICEF questioned 20 staff chosen at random about their breastfeeding knowledge and the skills. Staff chosen to be interviewed included family support workers, health visitors, nursery nurses and infant feeding advisors from the Redbridge early intervention infant feeding team. Staff were questioned on their knowledge of hand expressing and how to recognise effective breastfeeding using standard assessments.

The UNICEF assessor noted the Redbridge infant feeding team had made great improvements through its in-house staff training and audits, enabling healthcare professionals to support mothers to reach their own breastfeeding goals.

Jan Geddes, NELFT’s operational lead infant for feeding and health improvement, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham, Waltham Forest and Havering said: “We congratulate all the staff involved for their hard work over the last five years that has enabled us to make these changes to our practice and achieve the standards required.

“We would also like to thank the public health team in Redbridge who work with us and recognise the role that increased breastfeeding rates has in reducing childhood obesity. This success is a result of fantastic joint working between the NHS and the local authority.”

The Basildon, Brentwood and Thurrock health visiting service achieved full Baby Friendly status earlier this year and were presented with their UNICEF Baby Friendly award by Anne Woods, Baby Friendly Initiative deputy programme manager.

For more information, contact Jan Geddes, NELFT’s operational lead infant for feeding and health improvement, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham, Waltham Forest and Havering, on 0208 822 4134; jan.geddes@nelft.nhs.uk