Infants, Parents and Carers Bill

Jess Brown-Fuller Excerpts

Wednesday 14th October 2026 Public Bill Committees

I am grateful to the Minister for looking at the amendment closely. I hope that she will accept its principle and commit to making sure that there is a workable piece of legislation ahead of Report stage, because children’s success, health and safety are all too often predetermined long before they are born by inequalities baked into our society. It is the moral duty of our Government to level the playing field and ensure that even if we do not all have the same start to life, we may be able to attain similar journeys and ends with the right support from birth. It is with that ambition that I tabled the amendment.

[Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)]

I thank the right hon. Member for New Forest West for introducing this important piece of legislation, and all the Members who have supported its progress. I have two points that I hope the Minister can clarify.

The amendment mentions prospective parents, and a prospective parent is defined as somebody who is experiencing a pregnancy. I wonder whether that includes parents who are undergoing IVF. They might not know whether an embryo transfer has worked, but at the moment after an embryo transfer, they are pregnant. There is a postcode lottery in respect of IVF services in this country. Someone can live on one road and get three rounds of IVF or live on another road and get only one. Those people are prospective parents in my mind, because they are working very hard and going through real difficulties to bring into this world young people who would be loved.

I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Interests as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for infant feeding and inequalities. When I launched the APPG, it was called the APPG for infant feeding; we added “and inequalities” afterwards because it is so important to make sure that inequalities are addressed throughout everything we do. Families from more deprived areas are half as likely to breastfeed their children, even though breastfeeding can have positive outcomes for the health of both the mother and the baby and in terms of affordability for those families.

Will the Minister clarify whether breastfeeding support will be included in the infant support services that are assessed under the Bill? A recently published survey found that seven in 10 mothers who stopped breastfeeding by the time their baby was four to six months old said that they would have liked to have breastfed for longer, so there is clear demand in the public realm. If people saw more support for breastfeeding, they would be able to continue to do it for longer. For whatever reason—perhaps all the challenges that come alongside breastfeeding—they stop earlier than they would like to.

There are also positive steps. The infant feeding survey that was published in June 2026 shows that breastfeeding rates are going up, but it would be helpful to understand whether that will be monitored as part of the process so we can make sure that trajectory continues. Reducing health inequalities should include making sure that no mother experiences the postcode lottery of breastfeeding support that is currently so apparent. So many breastfeeding services are run by volunteers, midwives on their days off or health visitors who are squeezing in the time to provide those services. For many families, those services are not available at all.

Will the Minister commit to publishing clear statutory guidance that defines the breastfeeding and infant feeding support services that local authorities ought to provide under the Bill? The most recent Government announcement on the roll-out of Healthy Babies funding to all local authorities is excellent, but it did not explicitly mention breastfeeding and infant feeding support, whereas the wording in respect of the previous roll-out was far more explicit.

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If women are supported with that, particularly in those first couple of weeks, it does become easy and simple, and much easier than bottle-feeding because it is always with you and always available, as well as being better for the baby. The support that I had from a breastfeeding support group in Grantham, near my home, was very helpful at that time. If more women had access to that sort of support, we could see more babies getting the right nutrition in that respect.

[Jess Brown-Fuller]

The shadow Minister is making a really important point. Does she also agree that representation in politics is so important and that having women in politics matters because they are able to talk about their unique experiences when it comes to breastfeeding? We need to make sure that we get lots of women into politics so that they can raise important points like she has just done.

[Dr Caroline Johnson]

I think it is important that we have both women and men in politics, because fathers have an important role to play with babies too, and gentlemen can talk about their experiences of fatherhood. One of the challenges that some babies face is the lack of that male role model. It is a balance between the two. And, of course, women and men can talk about each or either topic if they wish to do so.

The other thing I want to talk about is interaction and play—the serve and return. Being played with and stimulated is very important for brain development, and a lack of it can lead to reduced attention span, reduced memory and weaker impulse control in the long run. People might believe that interaction and play come instinctively, and to some they do, but to others less so. Support and understanding of what they can do to help their baby is something that I think women and men value, because almost everyone loves their children intently, so they will want to do the best for their baby, and sometimes it is helpful to know what that is. I often get patients in clinic who come with one problem, but if they have a small infant, they will often say, “While I am here, doctor, can you just look at this? Can I just ask about that?” I am sure the hon. Member for Stroud, as a GP, will tell us the same. Parents ask because there are so many questions, and having the opportunity to have them answered is very important.

I also want to talk about inequalities, because we have talked a lot about them this morning. There is now inequality between the services provided in cities and those provided in rural areas. Does the Minister have any comments on how those services will be provided in rural environments? Very often the average income for a postcode may be good, but there will be hidden poverty within it, because of discrepancies within postcode averages that are seen less in cities. Transport can also be more difficult in rural areas. How will the Minister ensure that the services are accessible to those who need them?

I want to talk about the money, because if we invest £1 in a child’s life at this age, we can get £10 in return owing to better outcomes in the long run. Will the Minister confirm that the money for those services will be provided in full, and that there will be a workforce plan to ensure that there is a workforce to deliver them?

The hon. Member for Washington and Gateshead South, who I know has done a lot of work in this area over the years and cares about it very deeply, talks about outcomes. Outcomes are important, but so is value for money, because we must be careful with taxpayers’ money. What interventions are making the most difference, and how do we focus on achieving them? We need to think carefully about what we measure. Overall, however, this is a good Bill that will help infants and children to develop their full potential and have equality of opportunity, and therefore I will support it.