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Draft Infant Feeding Strategy 2021-25 consultation

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Consultation has concluded

The council is consulting on its draft Infant Feeding Strategy 2021 - 2025 which sets out the direction to support agencies and the public, to protect, promote, support and normalise breastfeeding. Parents may choose to breastfeed, use expressed breastmilk or use infant formula, and this is often a very personal decision. While the Strategy promotes the choice of breastfeeding, it would like all parents to feel supported in how they feed their baby.

Breastfeeding promotes health, prevents disease, saves lives and contributes to reducing a broad range of inequalities. There are benefits for baby, mother, the wider family, the environment

The council is consulting on its draft Infant Feeding Strategy 2021 - 2025 which sets out the direction to support agencies and the public, to protect, promote, support and normalise breastfeeding. Parents may choose to breastfeed, use expressed breastmilk or use infant formula, and this is often a very personal decision. While the Strategy promotes the choice of breastfeeding, it would like all parents to feel supported in how they feed their baby.

Breastfeeding promotes health, prevents disease, saves lives and contributes to reducing a broad range of inequalities. There are benefits for baby, mother, the wider family, the environment, and estimated cost savings for health services. 8 out of 10 parents stop breastfeeding before they want to and fewer than half of babies in England receive human breast milk by the age of two months.

The Action Plan details what Barnet aims to do to continue to improve by removing obstacles and improving service provision to offer the right support at the right place at the right time especially in the first few weeks of a baby’s life.

The three fundamental motivating Public Health factors for the Infant Feeding Strategy which are that breast feeding contributes towards reducing:

  • infant mortality
  • childhood obesity
  • reducing a broad range of inequalities.

How we plan to respond to these priorities

In response to these three widely recognised Public Health priorities, Barnet’s Action Plan aims to tackle these. This Infant Feeding Strategy sits under the remit of this.

In brief, Barnet’s Infant Feeding Strategy aims to:

  • support more women to initiate breastfeeding
  • support more women to continue breastfeeding
  • identify areas of low uptake and target services accordingly
  • normalise breastfeeding borough wide.

Your views are important to us

We want to hear your views on our strategy, in particular we want to hear from parents, expectant parents, their families and partner organisations. To find out more about our plans, please read our and Draft Infant Feeding Strategy and Action Plan.


How to give views

Please take the time to give us your views on our draft strategy by completing our online questionnaire.

For any further information, or to request a questionnaire in an alternative format, please email Clare.slater-robins@barnet.gov.uk.

Consultation has concluded

  • We asked, you said, we did

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    We asked

    We asked for your views on our draft Infant Feeding Strategy 2021 - 2025, which sets out the direction to support agencies and the public, to protect, promote, support, and normalise breastfeeding.

    You said

    We received 62 responses to the questionnaire:

    • an average of 95% agree with each of the strategies aims
    • 95% agree with the vision laid out in the strategy
    • an average of 85% agree the actions for each strategy pillar will help raise local breastfeeding rates


    There were also a number of comments made by residents completing the questionnaire, in relation to the strategy and action plan:

    • provision of adequate staffing levels for population demand (eight respondents)
    • ensuring equality of services across the borough (four respondents)
    • support for all types of feeding - breast and bottle (four respondents
    • consistent and up-to-date advice, including baby’s birth weight, by three weeks (three respondents)
    • normalising the breastfeeding campaign – including mum’s rights to breastfeed and feeing beyond one year (three respondents)


    We did

    In response to the comments made, the strategy and action plan were amended to include the elements that respondents asked to be incorporated.

    The strategy is currently being finalised and the final version will be available in summer 2022 – you will be able to view the final strategy on the council’s website, Barnet Online.