By Dr Sarah Turner and Joy Hastings
Yesterday, the government unveiled its long-awaited 10 Year Health Plan for England. Obviously, as a 10 Year Plan, it’s a view of the big picture; an aspirational view of an NHS that harnesses everything at its disposal (and then some).
The Plan recognises the urgent need for an NHS that shifts more focus to prevention from responding to sickness or last resort visits to A&E. There’s also a focus on tackling health inequalities, which we, as BfN, particularly welcome.
There are other positive commitments. The focus on building out a multidisciplinary “neighbourhood health service” aligns with BfN’s experience of supporting mothers in the communities in which they live. We know and hear from families that this works. There is recognition of the “impact of peer support workers”[1] and of the “important role”[2] that volunteers and peer supporters can play in efficiently supporting neighbourhood services – precisely what BfN is best at.
The plan announces a “moonshot to end the obesity epidemic”,[3] noting that “nearly 1 in 5 children leave primary school with obesity”.[4] The government commits to restricting junk food advertising, banning high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s, updating school food standards, and expanding free school meals.
Yet – for now, at least – in 168 pages, it makes no mention of one of the easiest, cheapest evidence-based interventions available: breastfeeding support. At a population-level, there is evidence that breastfeeding provides an early preventative measure against obesity. A WHO study of 16 European countries found that breastfeeding can cut the chances of a child becoming obese by up to 25%, with children who were never breastfed being 22% more likely to be obese than those breastfed for six months or more. [5] A major meta-analysis of 25 studies involving 226,508 participants found that breastfeeding is associated with a 13% reduction in the likelihood of being overweight or obese.[6] Other research has also shown that each additional month of exclusive breastfeeding is associated with a 1% decrease in BMI and 2% reduction in fat mass at 6 years of age.[7]
More effective, evidence-based support from fellow mums with lived experience of feeding their babies does not need the funding of a moonshot. It will provide help in the goal to reduce childhood obesity (and as a result, adult obesity in the long run) if provided widely and uniformly throughout England. As the recent World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Report on the UK highlighted, at present, the UK is ranked amongst the worst places in the world to want to breastfeed. This is because 80% of women stop breastfeeding before they want to, usually citing a lack of relevant support.[8] It is disappointing that breastfeeding is not at all mentioned in the Plan, which was released only two days after Minister Ashley Dalton[9] confirmed the government’s commitment to supporting women to breastfeed when they wish, acknowledging the urgent concerns raised by Jess Brown-Fuller MP.[10]
Almost as much space was given in The Plan to the exploration of a “My Children” section of the new NHS app, [11] as to all references to the importance of expanding and enhancing the Family Hub and Sure Start/ Start for Life models,[12] which have already started to demonstrate the impact and efficiencies of joined-up community support mentioned throughout.
It is proposed that the “My Children” section of the NHS App will provide information about weaning and create “functionality to record feeding times, monitor sleep or use AI analytics to understand the best way to care for their child”.[13] We have seen the provision of breastfeeding support through digital technology before, when Public Health England (now OHID) launched the Breastfeeding Friend skill on Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant in 2018.[14] Since then, with funding from OHID, we have expanded out the National Breastfeeding Helpline’s (NBH) opening hours to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – covering precisely the early hours of the morning that the Breastfeeding Friend was championed to be able to support. A recent independent evaluation of the NBH showed that 72% of callers wanted to get more support from an independent, trained person with personal experience to draw upon; 32% wanted to talk through their concern before contacting a healthcare professional. Furthermore, of those callers that considered themselves in a state of distress before talking to a trained supporter on the NBH, 95% of callers in England reported a reduction in distress after the call had ended. These figures would not be replicated through the use of an app.
With our experience of working ‘on the frontline’ with tens of thousands of women and families every year, BfN will continue to advocate for in person breastfeeding peer support for anyone who needs it – whether it’s the parents with no previous infant feeding experience and a headful of questions, the family who mixed feeds, or the mum who wants support to end their breastfeeding journey. This is what mums and families tell us makes a difference.
We are hopeful that the push to community-based services will only help us in strengthening consistent and high-quality peer-support for all families who need it. We look forward to working with our many partners in the infant feeding community and beyond to help shape how families are supported within this new plan. Furthermore, we are excited to continue to work with our fantastic colleagues in local authorities and the NHS – after all, we have decades-worth of evidence of the benefits of using highly trained peer supporters that we can’t wait to share!
[1] P32
[2] ibid
[3] P12
[4] P11
[5] UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (2019). Breastfeeding reduces child obesity risk by up to 25% (https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/breastfeeding-reduces-child-obesity-risk-by-up-to-25-per-cent/ – last accessed 03/07/2025)
[6] Yan, J, et al. “The association between breastfeeding and childhood obesity: a meta-analysis.” BMC public health 14 (2014): 1-11. (https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1267 – last accessed 03/07/2025)
[7] Muraglia et al., Breastfeeding: Science and knowledge in pediatric obesity prevention. Frontiers in Medicine, 11, (2024)1430395. (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2024.1430395/full – last accessed 03/07/2025)
[8] World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative: UK Report 2024 (https://ukbreastfeeding.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/wbti-report-final-digital.pdf ) – last accessed 04/07/2025
[9] Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention
[10] For more details: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025-07-01/debates/51CF381C-7768-4230-BEF1-E7C1B097561B/details – last accessed 04/07/2025
[11] P51
[12] P37
[13] P51
[14] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-technology-supports-new-mums-to-breastfeed – last accessed 03/07/2025