Prison secures breastfeeding charter mark

A Liverpool prison is the latest organisation to secure a charter mark for being breast feeding friendly. Liverpool City Council's 'Breastfeeding Mayoral Quality Mark' aims to make the City a place where mums can breastfeed in comfort when they are out and about.

Since the scheme was launched in September last year, a total of 116 premises including cafes, shops and restaurants across Liverpool have achieved the Quality Mark - including HMP Altcourse in Fazakerley.

Successful businesses sign up to a 10 point plan which includes:-

► Support breastfeeding in all public areas.

► Making private areas available for feeding where possible.

► Offering mums a free drink of water or tea/coffee.

► Promoting support services for breastfeeding.

Each venue receives a certificate and a badge that they can place in their window or door to let customers know they are breast feeding friendly.

Altcourse Prison has a special room set aside for the families of inmates who have young children and uses it to encourage them to bath their babies, play with them and encourage positive relationships as a way of reducing reoffending.

Deputy Mayor, Councillor Ann O'Byrne, said:- "Word is spreading about the Breastfeeding Mayoral Quality Mark and now to the extensive list of cafes, restaurants, shops and public buildings I am delighted we can add HMP Altcourse. This is all part of our drive to make sure that mums are able to feed their child in comfort without being disturbed, wherever they are."

Community Engagement Manager at HMP Altcourse, Paul Handley, said:- "We are delighted to have secured the Charter Mark and have already had interest from a number of other prisons in the work that we are doing here to promote breastfeeding by visitors. Both Oakwood in Wolverhampton and Parc in South Wales have started to create similar rooms in their prisons. They are using the Liverpool Bambis Mayoral charter as a guide and are also quoting Liverpool Bambis as the service to aspire to."

Liverpool is seeing an increase in breastfeeding rates and is making steady progress towards the national average. The Quality Mark is aimed at making sure there are many venues where mums feel comfortable breastfeeding.

A total of 55% of new mums feed naturally in Liverpool, compared to 74% elsewhere, dropping to 33.5% at 6 to 8 weeks against 44% across the rest of the country.

The City's peer support group for breastfeeding, Liverpool Bambis; who are based at and managed by:- Wavertree, Childwall and Woolton Children's Centre; has supported 18,000 mums, over the last 5 years.

Another Northern and Merseyrail Strike Announced

THE Rail Union RMT announced further strike action on Saturday, 3 March 2018, in separate disputes with train operating companies Northern and Merseyrail over attacks on the role of the safety critical guard and the extension of Driver Only Operation in the name of increased profits.

Members on Northern and Merseyrail, have been instructed to take action and not to book on for any shifts between 00:01 hours and 23:59 hours, on Saturday, 3 March 2018.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:- "Every single effort that RMT has made to reach negotiated settlements in these separate disputes with Northern and Merseyrail over safe operation and safe staffing has been kicked back in our faces. No one should be in any doubt, these disputes are about putting the safety of the travelling public before the profits of the private train companies It is frankly ludicrous that we have been able to negotiate long term arrangements in Scotland and Wales that protect the guards and passenger safety but we are being denied the same opportunities with rail companies in England. Theresa May and Chris Grayling are happy to stand aside and cheer on overseas rail companies that rip off the British passenger with eye-watering far increases to subsidise their domestic transport operations while throwing the guards off our trains. If it's good enough for Wales and Scotland to put safety first then it's good enough for the rest of the UK. RMT remains ready for talks in both of these disputes."

We would love to know your views on this strike action.  Does it affect you or are you involved in anyway? Please email us to:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com.