A VISITING service for babies has been recognised by Unicef who hailed its co-ordinator as being like ‘gold dust’.

The Growing Healthy North Yorkshire Health Visiting Service for youngsters aged up to five-years-old has been awarded Stage 2 Baby Friendly accreditation by Unicef.

The service is run by Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust and through it all families with a child under five have access to a Health Visiting Team in North Yorkshire.

These consist of health visitors and assistant practitioners/nursery nurses who are responsible for delivering a series of routine appointments to all families.

The Baby Friendly Initiative, set up by Unicef and the World Health Organization, is a global programme which sets standards to ensure parents are supported to build close and loving relationships with their baby.

The Unicef report’s authors said that staff in the North Yorkshire service present a positive approach towards implementing the Baby Friendly standards and have consistently displayed enthusiasm and commitment towards providing an effective training programme.

Infant Feeding Co-ordinator, Debbie Stuart, was singled out for praise, being described as ‘gold dust’.

It said Ms Stuart works closely with North Yorkshire County Council and the Health Visiting service to provide strong leadership.

Paul Simpson, general manager for Growing Healthy North Yorkshire, said: “We are such an enthusiastic, dedicated team here in North Yorkshire and everyone should be proud of what we’ve achieved.

“This award is entirely due to their hard work in providing the best possible care for mums-to-be, children and families right across North Yorkshire.”