Feed launch petition to reinstate Health Visitor referalls to Glasgow North Baby Foodbank

Feed, in partnership with Glasgow North Baby Foodbank (then known as Springburn Baby Foodbank) launched a campaign to reinate the Health Visitor referral system after bosses at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had banned their Health Visitors from accessing the support provided by the Bbay Foodbank for the families in their care.

We launched a Change.org petition calling for reinstatement of the referral service; the petition is still open and had almost 1000 signatures at last count. We said:

Together with the volunteers at Springburn Baby Foodbank, we at Feed are asking you to help ensure that Health Visitors are always able to refer the families they work with to all foodbanks according to need.

Springburn Baby Foodbank was founded to support local families in crisis and works on a referral basis to offer baby essentials such as nappies, wipes, breast pads, baby food and first infant formula. Having initially worked with the baby foodbank to set up the referral system, local Health Visitors have since been prevented from referring families in need to the service because it provides first infant formula.

We have also learned that another local foodbank, who have worked with Health Visitor referrals for some time, have also recently been advised that local Health Visitors are now unable to refer families to this service to access infant formula.

This issue could affect any foodbank or service that provides formula fed babies with infant formula.

Infant formula is food, and when families struggle to or cannot access formula it puts the most vulnerable babies at risk. It is therefore absolutely crucial that all health and social care professionals who work closely with families have access to referral pathways to foodbanks and other such services. Health Visitors are ideally placed to identify need and signpost families to the relevant services in order to provide support to them to feed their babies safely.

Since highlighting our campaign to the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board, we are delighted that they would like to meet with us to seek a way forward that helps all families. This is a really positive step but we still need your support.