Colin Sure Start receive UNICEF BFI stage 3 Accreditation

Colin Sure Start, along with the other 4 Sure Start projects in the South-Eastern Trust area have received a coveted and highly regarded UNICEF accreditation - the BFI (Baby Friendly Initiative) accreditation after successfully passing the stage 3 assessment in February this year! 

This award and accreditation scheme is set up to recognise organisations who are demonstrating a high standard of support to mothers who are breastfeeding or responsive bottle feeding. It requires organisations to ensure that all of their staff are fully trained, and demonstrate competence in providing a welcoming and supportive environment to parents, providing high quality information on the benefits of responsive feeding, health, bonding and relationship and brain development benefits, and being able to signpost parents for further support when required. It requires that organisations are providing a high quality service provision, including regular group based and one-to-one support for parents with infant feeding.

We are very pleased to say that we have now received the full report from our assessment indicating a clear pass, with all the required standards being met or exceeded! The assessment involved not just an audit of the projects and staff, but also interviews with mothers who had used Sure Start services, with 97% of those interviewed indicating that they were 'very happy with the care - no complaints' and 100% of mothers interviewed indicating that responsive feeding had been encouraged and that the services had met their needs.

This is a massive achievement for all of the Sure Starts involved and a huge credit to our hard working and dedicated staff team here at Sure Start. We would particularly wish to acknowledge and thank Julie Anne Murphy, our Health Practitioner and Breastfeeding Champion here at Colin Sure Start, for the incredible effort, commitment and passion that she showed in spearheading this accreditation process here at Colin! And also a massive thanks to Paula Mulhall who has supported all the projects in coordinating the BFI accreditation process.

If you would like to find out more about our Breastfeeding support and responsive feeding services, which include a weekly support group, workshops and events and home based support, please contact Julie Anne Murphy on 90601417.