Infant feeding Support Worker

NHS; Colchester; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 28,000; Full time

Job summary

Join the Maternity Infant Feeding Team at a leading NHS Foundation Trust in Colchester. As an Infant Feeding Support Worker, you will help families with breastfeeding and support the wider healthcare team to ensure high standards of care. This is a full-time role with training and development opportunities within a supportive environment.

Benefits

Generous pension scheme

27 days annual leave on commencement

Access to NHS discounts

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Willingness to undertake further study.
• Confident in producing and evaluating feeding plans.
• Experience in supporting breastfeeding within a health or community setting.

Responsibilities

• Support the Infant Feeding Lead in planning and implementation of BFI standards.
• Ensure high patient care standards in line with Trust policies.
• Work as part of the healthcare team to meet patients' needs.

Skills

Breastfeeding support

Health promotion

Community work

Mentoring

Teamwork

Education

NVQ Level 3 (Health & Social Care) or equivalent

Job description

Go back East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Infant feeding Support Worker

The closing date is 02 June 2025

Are you passionate about breastfeeding and supporting close families and their babies? Are you enthusiastic about working with others to provide feeding support over the first few weeks of life?

An exciting opportunity has arisen at Colchester and Ipswich hospital, ESNEFT to join the Maternity Infant Feeding Team to deliver Infant Feeding support across Maternity services. The role will mainly be supporting families but will also include assisting the Infant Feeding Team.

We have two full time posts, one for Colchester Hospital and one for Ipswich Hospital.

The advert might close earlier if sufficient amount applications received.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will support the Infant Feeding Lead in planning, implementation and maintenance of UNICEF baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) standards.

The post holder will have working knowledge of clinical and public health guidelines relevant to local and national breastfeeding agendas.

To meet the needs of the Trust with regard to Induction, mandatory and statutory training

To meet the direct and indirect care needs of patients under the delegation and supervision of a Registered Midwife.

To ensure high standards of patient care at all times, in line with Trust policies and guidelines

To work as an effective member of the midwifery and wider multi-professional healthcare team.

To work within the boundaries of the role of the MSW supporting more junior colleagues as required and refer to the Registered Midwife as appropriate.

About us

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A

Job responsibilities

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description and person specification.

Person Specification

Qualification

• NVQ Level 3 (Health & Social Care) or equivalent
• Willingness to undertake further study

Experience

• Proven previous experience in supporting breastfeeding within a health or community setting.
• Tongue-tie recognition and management.
• Lone working in the community setting.
• Confident and competent in producing, evaluating and completing a feeding plan.
• Experience discussing and demonstrating responsive bottle feeding.
• Experience within an acute setting
• Experience running groups.
• Experience in mentoring / supervising staff.

Knowledge

• Can demonstrate an awareness of benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and baby in line with UNICEF BFI standards.
• Understanding of risk management, health and safety issues, including safe manual handling.

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.

Employer name

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust