Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of trends in the provision of specialist breast feeding support services in (a) England and (b) Oxfordshire in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement

The commissioning of specialist breastfeeding support services is split across clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), who commission maternity services, and local authorities, who commission public health services for 0 – 5 year olds.

CCGs are responsible for commissioning breastfeeding support from midwifery services and, in Oxfordshire, the County Council is responsible to commissioning breastfeeding support from the health visiting service. Guidance to commissioners does not distinguish between general and specialist breastfeeding support. Such services (for example, milk banks) are funded through a mix of National Health Service funding, the charitable sector and public donations.

NHS Oxfordshire CCG’s maternity services are working towards achieving stage 2 accreditation. Oxfordshire’s health visitors have recently achieved full (stage 3) accreditation.

Information on service provision for breastfeeding and trends in the provision of said services is not held centrally. The National Infant Feeding Network may monitor this under UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Initiative which is available at:

https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/baby-friendly-resources/advocacy/infant-feeding-networks/

Public Health England has published a resource for local authorities to support their commissioning of such support services which is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/infant-feeding-commissioning-services