Friday, August 4th saw the astounding announcement that Kent County Council were shelving their current consultation on infant feeding. The consultation, originally launched on the 18th July, is now planned to be re-launched sometime in September. The plans involved major cuts to the 40 weekly groups currently accessible across all Kent’s districts and would also limit access to breastfeeding specialists such as Breastfeeding Counsellors and Lactation Consultants.
The decision to withdraw the consultation comes amid criticism from Rosie Duffield, new Labour MP for Canterbury, who slammed the proposed cuts as ‘terrible’, adding that she believed “[the plans] will drastically cut down the number of women using [breastfeeding support] services”.
Keep Kent Breastfeeding campaigner and keepkentbreastfeeding.org website creator, Tannice Hemming, said: ‘the proposed changes seem to be solely a cost-cutting measure. They could be catastrophic to women’s breastfeeding journeys and I can’t see a single redeemable change to the current provision”.
The service is currently provided by a Community Interest Company (CIC), PS Breastfeeding CIC. Clinics and groups in Kent allow free, drop-in access to breastfeeding specialists, such as Lactation Consultants and Breastfeeding Counsellors, as well as support from trained, mother-to-mother breastfeeding peer supporters.
Mrs Hemming said she and her fellow campaigners were determined to stop the cuts – or at least to get Kent County Council to re-think their approach: “initially, the Council were allowing people to respond via email”, she said, “but then they removed that ability, presumably because they were getting too many responses – responses that weren’t following the line they set with their leading online questionnaire. They removed the ability to email consultation responses, and now they’re withdrawing the consultation altogether. They say it’s to re-write it, but why wasn’t it clear to begin with? I’m very concerned this means that all the consultation responses they’ve received so far won’t be counted and they’re hoping we won’t be able to galvanise responses in the same way again.”
Mrs Hemming has submitted three Freedom of Information requests to ensure that answers to these questions are answered and that the council is held to account.
A rally, originally planned for the morning of Wednesday 9th August, has been postponed until the consultation is re-launched by the council. However, this has been replaced with a community meeting, to be held in a central location in Maidstone on the same date.
“It’s vital that to keep up the pressure on the council”, said a source who did not wish to be named. “We must let people know that the fight to preserve Kent’s amazing breastfeeding support services has not been won. We should use every available opportunity to keep talking about the consultation and the campaign to Keep Kent Breastfeeding.
Another source, who did not want to be named, said “there are concerns about what will happen to the current service whilst they are relaunching the consultation. The timeline suggests pre-consultation meetings in early September, which would mean collecting and considering the results would push things into October and November, How can they change the service on 1st of January, as originally planned?”
Those who want to know more about the campaign are advised to keep a close eye on updates on the Keep Kent Breastfeeding website keepkentbreastfeeding.org and the associated Facebook page, available at fb.me/keepkentbf
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ABOUT KeepKentBreastfeeding.org
keepkentbreastfeeding.org was founded as a grassroots campaign website by Tannice and Jacques Hemming, supported by several women who are concerned about the proposed cuts to Kent’s breastfeeding support services. The site and associated campaign resources are donated by fledgling Kent marketing consultancy, Hemming Communications.
Media enquiries to Tannice Hemming, available on tannoamice@gmail.com
