Infant Feeding Specialist

Haringey GP Federation; Brighton; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 47,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare organization in Brighton is seeking an enthusiastic Specialist Community Public Health Nurse to join the Specialist Infant Feeding team. In this role, you will provide expert support to families regarding infant feeding, play a key role in maintaining Baby Friendly Initiative accreditations, and support best practices within the Healthy Child Programme. The position offers a competitive salary and flexible working options across diverse community settings.

Benefits

Excellent training and development opportunities

Flexible working options

Cost-effective workplace nurseries

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in a clinical governance role.
• Ability to assess, develop, and implement care programs.
• Active participation in safeguarding children's welfare.

Responsibilities

• Support the Infant Feeding Coordinator in implementing infant feeding strategies.
• Provide leadership and mentorship within the Healthy Child Programme.
• Promote evidence-based practices in infant feeding.

Skills

Good numeracy and literacy skills

Ability to use IT as required

Ability to apply and promote the public health role of the HCP

Demonstrates leadership in practice

Able to work on own initiative

Education

NMC registered SCPHN (HV)

Registered Nurse/Midwife Qualification

IBCLC Qualification

Evidence of relevant graduate developments at Level 6

Teaching qualification

Job description

We're looking for enthusiastic, innovative and motivated Specialist Community Public Health Nurses - Health Visitors and/or experienced Lactation Consultants to join Brighton and Hove's Specialist Infant Feeding team.

Specialist Infant Feeding Team is an integral part of the 0-19 Healthy Child Programme. As a Baby Friendly Accredited service, we provide expert support to local families, supporting them with infant feeding and nurturing strong parent-child relationships. Alongside our specialist work, we ensure the wider Healthy Child Programme consistently delivers high-quality guidance and compassionate care, empowering parents to give their children the very best start in life.

Main duties of the job

• The postholder will work with the multi-professional team within the Healthy Child Programme to ensure family-focused care and support. The postholder will support continuous improvement, with a focus on infant feeding and fostering relationships between parents and their babies.
• The main focus is to assist the Infant Feeding Team Lead with the clinical implementation of the HCP strategy for maintaining the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) UK Community award and progression to GOLD
• The postholder will provide leadership for the implementation of the existing infant feeding pathway and support best practice in relation to infant feeding.
• They will be expected to provide specialist breastfeeding support to parents who have complex breastfeeding needs.
• They will act as an infant feeding resource, providing expert infant feeding knowledge and support to the ongoing development of staff.
• They will work with current Peer Support provision and contribute to the enhancement of the provision and its sustainability in the long term.
• The postholder will demonstrate commitment to best practice and challenge staff if this is not being upheld.

About us

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.

Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?

• Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
• Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussex
• Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
• Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
• Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
• Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
• Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
• Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast

Our values

--Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence--guide everything we do.

We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Job responsibilities

Support the Infant Feeding Coordinator in the implementation of the infant feeding strategy for maintaining the Baby Friendly Initiative's full accreditation status

Be recognised as a specialist professional with an increased knowledge in infant feeding and act as a resource of information and support for colleagues

Act as an effective role model and demonstrate effective evidence-based care in relation to infant feeding and relationship building.

Promote, support, protect and normalise breastfeeding in line with the Trust Infant feeding procedure

Implement and embed new ideas, practices and approaches to care of mothers and babies, followed by evaluatio,n ensuring care is evidence-based and effective

Work with the infant feeding lead to support the development and integration of infant feeding allies within the Healthy Child Programme

Work with staff to encourage and support women to develop early relationships with their unborn baby

Ensure all families receive information to allow them to make informed choices about feeding and are fully supported in their chosen method of feeding

Be familiar with multi-disciplinary guidelines and policies relating to infant feeding and support staff awareness of and adherence to these guidelines

Undertake audit in order to evaluate and develop infant feeding practices. Actively contribute to the improvement of service and quality of care provision to meet the needs of the child, parents/carers and their families

As appropriate review cases relating to infant feeding, completing the Datix review and feeding back to staff with both positive and identified learning developments

Participate in locally agreed schemes or projects to support breastfeeding continuation, if/as specified by the Trust

Clinical

Maintain a visible presence in the HCP teams

Aim to guide and educate colleagues when working alongside them in the clinical areas, turning tasks into learning opportunities for others.

Support care planning for families where there are known or potential challenges to their feeding journey.

Be an autonomous practitioner providing clinical leadership and direct clinical care to families who have significant infant feeding challenges or requirements

Provide direct care to families who have significant infant feeding challenges or requirements, in the most appropriate environment, the family home or the childrens centre

Work with colleagues and support them to undertake assessment of mothers and babies' needs within the specialist area of infant feeding and plan, implement and evaluate clinical care as appropriate

Make assessments of the clinical well-being of babies and make effective care plans as part of the multidisciplinary team, making referrals as appropriate.

Work collaboratively with Maternity staff to support continuity of care of complex cases from the antenatal to the postnatal period

Ensure anxieties, problems, any changes in the mother or complaints from women are reported promptly to the Infant Feeding Lead and referrals made as appropriate.

Support the development of training resources to update the peer supporters, contribute to the selection, recruitment and retention of peer supporters. Take a lead role in providing child protection training to peer supporters.

Educational

Review outcomes for mothers and babies who have accessed the specialist service

Provide infant feeding training throughout the service for all staff (relevant to their role) who come into contact with new parents to empower meaningful conversations and care plans, under the guidance of the infant feeding team lead

Training could be as part of a formal face-to-face or virtual study session/day, but it maybe smaller group training sessions, one-to-one and ad hoc

Identify learning needs through verbal, written, audit or InPhase and utilise them to nurture staff development

Provide mentorship and guidance to students and newly qualified staff Support the infant feeding coordinator with raising staff BFI knowledge / providing training as required

Take responsibility for identifying own personal development needs and actively work towards professional development

Professional

Work as an assertive, organised, autonomous practitioner with effective time management

Promote harmonious relationships, liaising with colleagues and other professional groups and external agencies

Foster a culture of openness, kindness and approachability within their role

Ensure all communication, which may be complex, contentious or sensitive, is undertaken responsively and inclusively, focusing on improvement and ways to move forward

Ensure all communication is presented appropriately to the different recipients, according to levels of understanding, type of communication being imparted and possible barriers such as language, culture, understanding or physical or mental health conditions

Ensure the safety of the child and mother at all times and contribute to the areas clinical and non-clinical risk management through documenting untoward incidents

Person Specification

Qualification

• NMC registered SCPHN (HV)
• Registered Nurse/Midwife Qualification
• IBCLC Qualification
• Evidence of relevant graduate developments at Level 6
• teaching qualification

Skills

• Good numeracy and literacy skills
• Ability to use IT as required
• Ability to apply and promote the public health role of the HCP
• Ability to draw information from a range of sources in order to contribute to service development
• Demonstrates leadership in practice, including management of people, resources and caseload
• Able to work on own initiative, make decisions and prioritise
• Able to assess , develop, implement and develop programmes of care
• Active participant in the safeguarding of children

Experience

• Experience of working within a team environment
• Knowledge of clinical governance, clinical audit, clinical supervision and professional codes of conduct (NMC)
• Management of team/staff members

Other Requirements

• Mobility to travel across sites
• Able to work flexibly across a specified Area Team/Locality
• A commitment to lifelong learning and development

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

£38,682 to £46,580 a year per annum pro rata