Torbay’s public health nursing team has been accredited with the gold award by UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI).

The UNICEF BFI is a global campaign led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN’s children’s fund, aimed at improving breastfeeding rates and health care standards.

The Torbay team is only the second community service in the South West to achieve the award.

The Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust said the infant feeding team in Torbay put in place “best practices and worked hard with the wider team and colleagues to successfully deliver a gold accredited service”.

NHS service manager Vashti Wilks said the team were “very proud” of the achievement and what it meant to local families, adding that it “demonstrated a culture of kindness threaded throughout the service”.

Lincoln Sargeant, director of public health at Torbay Council, described the gold award as “a fantastic accolade for Torbay’s public health nursing team”, adding that such initiatives “help Torbay to be a child friendly place right from birth”.