Infant Feeding Specialist Health Visitor

NHS; City Of London; On-site; GBP 56,000 - 64,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare organization is seeking an experienced Infant Feeding Specialist Health Visitor to support infant feeding initiatives in Lewisham. This role involves training staff, liaising with healthcare professionals, and ensuring high standards of care for mothers and infants. The ideal candidate should have a background in health visiting and demonstrated experience in breastfeeding promotion. This position offers a competitive salary between £56,276 and £63,176 annually on a fixed-term basis.

Qualifications

• Registered Health Visitor with experience in community settings.
• Evidence of supporting and enabling mothers to breastfeed.
• Significant experience within the NHS.

Responsibilities

• Promote effective working relationships with colleagues and agencies.
• Support staff with health assessments and develop family health plans.
• Lead training on Baby Friendly breastfeeding tools.

Skills

Communication skills

Organizational skills

Teamwork

Education

Registered Health Visitor

UNICEF breastfeeding course or equivalent

Job description

Health Visiting band 7 Infant Feeding Specialist Health Visitor - this post will consist of supporting Infant feeding in the Lewisham Health Visiting service and holding a case load as a senior practitioner. This is an 5-month fixed term/secondment cover until end of March 2026

We are looking for an experienced and innovative Infant Feeding Specialist Health Visitor within the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

In our last CQC inspection LGT Children's Community Directorate were awarded an "outstanding" rating. The Health Visiting Service is accredited by UNICEF UK as Baby Friendly Level 3. The service was commended for providing a high standard of care to pregnant women and new mothers.

We have other specialist posts in the service, Perinatal Specialist Health Visitor, and a Domestic Violence Specialist Health Visitor. As the infant feeding specialist, you will be responsible for promoting effective working relationships by liaising with colleagues, GP's, other professionals, and statutory and voluntary agencies, organising, and delivering training to all grades of clinical and non-clinical staff.

A clean driving license, access to a car or alternative transport i.e., bicycle is an essential requirement of this post.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will be a resource for practitioners and support them when they are working with complex Infant Feeding cases. You will be an excellent communicator who can promote effective working relationships with all health care professionals and agencies.

You will organise and deliver UNICEF Baby Friendly training and assessment of Health Visiting staff breastfeeding skill in conjunction with the management team and clinical specialist educator.

You will be responsible for leading the audit programme for the Health Visiting service to ensure Baby Friendly accreditation Level 3 is maintained. You will ensure that the Health Visiting service has in place robust working practices that will deliver on the strategic level outcomes.

You will support Children's centre and family hub colleagues who are working with women and families to support their feeding choices. You will be required to plan and organise your own workload around the infant feeding strategy in Lewisham and Greenwich.

You will be a role model who is supportive to fellow colleagues, team managers, the neighbourhood health visitor Leads and support regular clinical delivery You will be an enthusiastic individual, possessing good organisational and communication skills and have the ability as an infant feeding specialist to implement new initiatives and to motivate members of the health visiting teams across Lewisham.

About us

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

• Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
• Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
• Improving the experience of staff with disability
• Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
• Making equalities mainstream

Job responsibilities

To promote effective working relationships by liaising with colleagues, GPs, other professionals, and statutory and voluntary agencies

To communicate highly sensitive and complex information to appropriate parties by promoting effective working relationships within their integrated teams

To support staff to undertake child and family health assessments in partnership with the family and, where needed, use the Common Assessment Framework to develop specific family health plans to meet long term health and parenting needs

To train staff in the use of Baby Friendly UNICEF/ Trust breastfeeding assessment tool.

To organise and deliver (working closely with public health & Clinical Practice Educator) level 3 breast feeding training and assessment of staff

To act as a resource and support to other practitioners working with women and families to support their feeding choices

To interpret, evaluate and implement the effective working practices that deliver on the outcomes agreed at a strategic level (KPI)

To take the lead in audits relating to infant feeding as required by the trust and as part of the continued BFI assessment

To plan and organise own workload around the infant feeding Lewisham and Greenwich

To lead in the on-going delivery of breast-feeding hubs across the borough

To contribute to the local health inequalities agenda liaising with colleagues and wider multi agency partners

Person Specification

Qualifications & training

• Registered Health Visitor
• UNICEF breastfeeding course or equivalent
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Evidence of supporting and enabling mothers to breastfeed
• Evidence of specialist skills underpinned by theory
• Experience of breastfeeding promotion
• 997/998 or equivalent

Knowledge

• Understanding of local, national, and international strategies relevant to breastfeeding
• Understanding of the health benefits of breastfeeding and the issues of public health and health inequalities associated with breastfeeding
• Good IT skills including email, Word and excel
• Knowledge of audit and research
• Knowledge of RIO

Experience

• Significant experience of post qualification experience of working within the NHS in a community setting
• Experience of multi-disciplinary working and working in a culturally sensitive way within a multicultural setting
• Experience of community development and project management
• Experience of delivering training and supervision

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.

£56,276 to £63,176 a yearper annum pro rata incl. HCAS