DECISION

1.    Approve the insourcing of the Baby Feeding and Wellbeing Service into the Council. This service would sit within the Early Help and Children & Family Service, in the Children and Culture Directorate. A smaller element of the existing service (specialist training and volunteer peer support network) would continue to be subcontracted to a specialist external organisation identified through an RFQ procurement process.

Action by:

ACTING CORPORATE DIRECTOR, HEALTH, ADULTS AND COMMUNITY (S. BANERJEE)

Associate Director of Public Health (K. Cole)

Councillor Gulam Kibria Choudhury, Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Social Care introduced the report that sought approval to insource the Baby Feeding and Wellbeing Service.

Dr Somen Banerjee, (Director of Public Health) and Katie Cole, (Associate Director of Public Health) explained the importance of good nutrition in early years, and the opportunity that this proposal provides to secure more integrated support.It was noted that the service already contributed to some of the highest breastfeeding rates in the country and other boroughs and councils had contacted LBTH for information on how to set up similar services.

Further to questions from Cabinet, Somen and Katie

·         explained the rationale for the proposal to retain specialist training services and the potential to move towards an in-house volunteer network in the future; and

·         explained the challenges of delivering the service in a culturally diverse area where language barriers can be an issue.

The Mayor welcomed the report as a further move toward securing better quality services for residents through insourcing. He agreed the recommendations as set out in the report.

RESOLVED

1.    To approve the insourcing of the Baby Feeding and Wellbeing Service into the Council. This service would sit within the Early Help and Children & Family Service, in the Children and Culture Directorate. A smaller element of the existing service (specialist training and volunteer peer support network) would continue to be subcontracted to a specialist external organisation identified through an RFQ procurement process.