Full Time



Gillingham, Kent, United Kingdom

Job Summary

We are recruiting for an Infant Feeding Support Worker who shares our ambition and vision to deliver the Best of Care by the Best people and has the drive to take us forward, by ensuring that the Trust continues to be the first choice for patients and our staff.

Main duties of the job

To ensure all women receive appropriate support and advice with their chosen method of feeding.

To support families to develop their relationship with their babies in the antenatal and postnatal period, to facilitate brain development and attachment

To work in collaboration with the Infant Feeding Lead and Support Midwife and assist them to give family centred support, and refer if appropriate

To help the Infant Feeding lead maintain the UNICEF standards throughout the trust

Offer specialist support and guidance to facilitate mothers to initiate and sustain breastfeeding – across a multitude of settings e.g. community, hospital, group settings and over the phone

Support mothers with complex breastfeeding needs e.g. multiple births, babies on NICU, pre-term babies.

Identify when feeding is not going well and refer to multidisciplinary services appropriately – e.g. specialist feeding clinic, health visiting, neonatal doctors

Our values are Bold, Every Person Counts, Sharing and Open and Together. It is important that you understand and to refer to our values when completing your application and always reflect our values throughout your employment with the Trust.

We are committed to endorsing diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion; our policies / procedures ensure that all applicants are treated fairly at every stage of the recruitment process.

To contribute to our exciting future and become part of our team, apply today.

About us

Here at Medway, we pride ourselves on working together as one to ensure that our shared vision of Better, Best, Brilliant is achieved. Our culture and values are what drives the Trust and is the heartbeat of who we are as an organisation.

Our Trust is a great choice for people who want to develop their career in an ambitious environment.

Would you like to work flexibly? In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important life is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement which will not mean sacrificing time for personal interests or family commitments. We aim to support you to work flexibly in a way that will suit you and us.

All of our substantive & fixed term employees can enjoy a range of staff benefits, a gym, an active health and wellbeing programme, an on-site nursery and a cycle to work scheme.

We are taking positive action to ensure that we can attract, recruit and retain the best talent and would welcome more applicants from under – represented groups to support the Trusts commitment to a diverse, inclusive and an employer of choice workforce.

All staff at Medway comply the Trust’s and the Kent and Medway Safeguarding Board’s policies on safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults.

Job description

Job responsibilities

To ensure all women receive appropriate support and advice with their chosen method of feeding.

To support families to develop their relationship with their babies in the antenatal and postnatal period, to facilitate brain development and attachment

To work in collaboration with the Infant Feeding Lead and Support Midwife and assist them to give family centred support, and refer if appropriate

To help the Infant Feeding lead maintain the UNICEF standards throughout the trust

Offer specialist support and guidance to facilitate mothers to initiate and sustain breastfeeding – across a multitude of settings e.g. community, hospital, group settings and over the phone

Support mothers with complex breastfeeding needs e.g. multiple births, babies on NICU, pre-term babies.

Identify when feeding is not going well and refer to multidisciplinary services appropriately – e.g. specialist feeding clinic, health visiting, neonatal doctors

To support and/or facilitate breastfeeding support groups and provide antenatal and postnatal education

Working with antenatal women and their families to promote the service and the benefits of breastfeeding

Help collect data, statistics and feedback to use for audit and to improve the service

To provide face to face and telephone feeding support to families, up to 6 weeks post birth, both in the hospital setting and community setting.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Level 2 Health and Social Care or educated to GCSE level

Desirable

• Care Certificate
• Infant Feeding qualification

Experience

Essential

• Infant feeding support experience

Desirable

• Work within healthcare setting
• Health Education provision

Skills

Essential

• Communication with both families and the multidisciplinary team
• Prioritisation of workload
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Full UK driving Licence and access to car

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Closing Date: 07 May 2024

To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.