Health regulators watchdog publishes performance review of NMC

A report by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE), the ‘watchdog’ of the UK’s nine health professional regulatory bodies, concludes that the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has made ‘significant progress’ over the last year.

The report, ‘Performance review of health professional regulatory bodies 2008/09’, comments that “This has been a challenging and transformative year for the Nursing and Midwifery Council. We are pleased to report on the significant progress it has made in reforming its governance and practice”.

The CHRE performance review also notes that the NMC has ‘…demonstrated excellence or good practice in aspects of its performance….’ and highlights:

• The accessibility of professional standards;
• The development of specific guidance on the care of older people;
• Requiring nurses and midwives to sign a personal declaration that they will conform to the ‘The Code: Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives’ at all times;
• Undertaking photographic checks using the British Council’s online checking system for non-EU applicants to register and;
• The use of an expert panel of people with disabilities to inform our work on the NMC’s disability equality scheme.

However, the Royal College of Nursing says there is still room for improvement in the NMC and has described waiting times for fitness to practice hearings as ‘worrying’.

The report is available on CHRE’s website at www.chre.org.uk

Wales Centre for Health commits to eradicating child poverty in Wales

The Wales Centre for Health has stated its commitment to eradicating child poverty in Wales by signing up to the Welsh Assembly Government’s Child Poverty Joint Agreement.

Many organisations are already committed to tackling child poverty through the Children and Young People’s Planning process. The aim of the Joint Agreement is to ensure that all public organisations that can influence the outcomes of children living in poverty co-operate to prioritise their needs.

By signing the Joint Agreement, organisations confirm that they will support and assist the Welsh Assembly Government to take forward the three strand approach to reducing child poverty outlined in the Joint Agreement Document, and ensure that, as far as possible, the policies and initiatives developed by their organisation will make a positive impact on the lives of children and young people living in poverty.

The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to eradicating child poverty in Wales by 2020 and halving it (against the 1997 rate) by 2010.

Mother and Baby survey reveals mothers worries about breastfeeding in public

A new Mother and Baby survey, carried out in conjunction with NCT, reveals that most British women still feel uncomfortable breastfeeding in public.

The survey, of over 1,200 mums, discovered that 60 per cent feel that the UK isn’t breastfeeding friendly. It also found that 65 per cent felt so strongly about it that they don’t even intend to try breastfeeding because they feel too self-conscious about people staring at them.

65 per cent of those questioned felt that they would feel more encouraged to try breastfeeding if there was a more relaxed attitude towards it among the general public. 30 per cent also thought attitudes towards breastfeeding are more positive abroad.

Two thirds of mothers who did choose to breastfeed said feeding their baby in public had been a stressful experience[l1] . Over half (54 per cent) have been asked to move on from a restaurant, cafe or coffee shop and 30 per cent have been asked to move in a shopping centre.

London came out on top as the place where mums feel most comfortable breastfeeding in public with no-one reporting that they had been asked to move on from feeding in a public place.

The North West (64.8%) and West Midlands (63.3%) were considered the most stressful areas to be a breastfeeding mum.

Women in Scotland didn’t care who saw them and felt most confident about breast feeding in front of other people – with 60 per cent not worrying who saw them. Mums in Wales feel the most supported by specialist GP and health visitors with 73 per cent feeling that they received all the support they needed. Only half of breastfeeding mums in the North felt supported.

70 per cent of mums said celebrities should breastfeed in public to help encourage acceptance.

Notes:

The survey was conducted by Mother  & Baby magazine and online at www.askamum.com and NCT website www.nct.org.uk

1236 replies were received.

Mother & Baby magazine is published monthly by Bauer Media.

COW and GATE found guilty of misusing research to sell their brands of formula milks

Cow & Gate this week had a complaint against their advertising of follow on milk upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ruling states that Cow & Gate’s claim that their follow-on milk “support[s] your baby’s natural immune system” is unsubstantiated. This complaint was brought by the NCT.  Baby Milk Action has also won a similar ASA ruling about Aptamil’s follow-on milk advertising.

NCT lodged a complaint with the ASA in July 2007 pointing out that Cow & Gate’s claim was unproven. The evidence that the company provided, purporting to support their claims, was based on a study which was not relevant for this product because:

• Follow-on milk is for babies who are aged 6 months or over. The study used as a basis by Cow & Gate for this claim recruited babies less than 4 months old who were fed on formula milk, not follow-on milk.
• The product in the study was different from the product being advertised with the claim. The formula milk provided to the babies in the study contained extensively hydrolysed cow’s milk*. Neither Cow & Gate’s formula milk, nor its follow-on milk contains cow’s milk that is extensively hydrolysed.
• The findings of the study are not necessarily relevant to babies who are not susceptible to allergies.  Because the babies selected to be part of the study, were all susceptible to having allergies (either a parent or a sibling had an allergy).

The ASA stated that Nutricia (manufacturer of Cow & Gate) needs to hold robust evidence to support their claims in any future advertising.

Parents are best served by talking to healthcare professionals and other bodies without a financial interest in formula, for their information.  By its nature, advertising is never impartial.

*Hydrolysing is where protein is broken down into amino acids and short chain peptides.

The Scientific Advisory Committee (SACN) which advises the government on nutrition, points out that the use of claims is ‘entirely unsupportable’. If an ingredient is beneficial it should be included in all formula milks. They said “We find the case for labeling infant formula or follow on formula with health or nutrition claims entirely unsupportable. If an ingredient is unequivocally beneficial as demonstrated by independent review of scientific data it would be unethical to withhold it for commercial reasons. Rather it should be made a required ingredient of infant formula in order to reduce existing risks associated with artificial feeding. To do otherwise is not in the best interests of children, and fails to recognise the crucial distinction between these products and other foods.”

www.sacn.gov.uk/pdfs/position_statement_2007_09_24.pdf