To ask the Minister of Health whether his Department monitors Baby Friendly Initiative accreditations, in each Health and Social Care Trust.

My Department strongly supports the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) and continues to monitor its implementation across the Health and Social Care Trusts.

In 2016, Northern Ireland became the first country in the UK to achieve 100% of births in BFI fully accredited settings. This was followed by full accreditation of Health Visiting services in 2020. The Northern Trust Neonatal Unit then became the first unit in NI to achieve full BFI accreditation in 2021, with other units working towards various stages of accreditation. Within Sure Start programmes, considerable progress has also been made with BFI accreditation in the community.

BFI is implemented locally, led by dedicated Infant Feeding Leads and multi-disciplinary teams, who support maternity, neonatal, community, Sure Starts and hospital-based children's services to improve care and outcomes for babies and families.

The Public Health Agency commission, through UNICEF, a BFI Professional Officer in Northern Ireland to support BFI assessments, reassessments and training across HSC and Sure Starts in NI and the National Infant Feeding Network NI (NIFN NI) to build capacity to sustain BFI in Northern Ireland.

My officials will continue to work with colleagues in the PHA, and Health and Social Care Trusts to monitor and support the implementation of BFI standards throughout Northern Ireland.