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At the Board's AGM last night, the Directors of Real Baby Milk were sad to accept the resignation of Louise Hunt as a Director. Louise has been a huge part of Real Baby Milk's growth to date and we are sorry to see her go. We would like to wish Louise all the very best wishes and sincerely thank her for all she has contributed over the last five years. We certainly wouldn't be where we are now without her input and dedication and she will be sorely missed.

We are delighted to accept Bec Thomas as a new Director of the company and with Arwen taking an extended maternity leave, have asked Bec to be the 'Acting Managing Director' of Real Baby Milk over the coming months. This is with immediate effect. We hope that all staff will support Bec in this role and we are delighted to have someone with Bec's experience and skills to take things forward on the Board's behalf.

The Board would like to thank all staff and stakeholders for their dedication, passion and commitment to the work that we do at RBM. We recognise how fortunate we are to have such a committed team of staff and volunteers working to attain our goals of supporting women and their babies with breastfeeding. You are all doing an amazing job and we remain impressed and grateful for what each and every one of you is doing. Thank you.

Arwen Folkes
On behalf of the RBM Board of Directors.

Accredited Peer Support Training begins

Real Baby Milk is delighted to be among the first breastfeeding organisations to be offering accredited peer support training in the UK. The training course, accredited by the National Open College Network, is now up and running in Cornwall with plans to deliver it elsewhere in the UK currently being developed.

Trainees undertake a six week training course and are assessed on elements such as active listening skills, positioning and attachment, hand expressing, peer supporting and the many different aspects of being an effective peer supporter.

The course has been accredited to level 1 and 2 with the Open College Network credit based learning and Real Baby Milk CIC is now a registered training centre. Trainees are reporting that the course really empowers them and builds their confidence in their own skills and capabilities as peer supporters.

So far over 16 trainees have completed the training course, with a further 30 peer supporters converting their previously unaccredited training through a series of accreditation days in Cornwall.

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence recommends that breastfeeding peer supporters should be trained under an independently accredited training course and it is this recommendation that has led Real Baby Milk to take this step. Based on the original course as written by Lactation Consultants, Helen Shanahan and Stephanie Heard, the course is specific to equip volunteers with the skills to provide effective mother-to-mother support within breastfeeding group settings.

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RBM shortlisted for national social enterprise award

Real Baby Milk CIC is delighted to have been shortlisted for a national award for the 'Highest Growth Champion' in the UK. Directors of the social enterprise will be attending the awards ceremony in London on June 9th to see if they have succeeded in winning the award.

"Like any social enterprise, we are so focused on delivering high quality services and addressing the social need that we were set up to tackle that it came as a bit of a surprise to find ourselves in a shortlist of three out of over 300 applicants" says Arwen Folkes, Managing Director of Real Baby Milk CIC "However, it is testament to the hard work and commitment of our team, the volunteers and public service partners that we work with that has led to our growth being recognised in this way and I am delighted to say that our growth looks set to continue over the coming months".

The social enterprise stands to win £100,000, a trip to the World Social Enterprise Convention in South Africa and ten days of business consultancy if they are successful. The Cornish based social enterprise has already been listed as the second fastest growing social enterprise in the UK by Social Enterprise Magazine.

The awards are sponsored by Royal Bank of Scotland and the ceremony at Lambeth Palace is to be attended by Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society. The awards ceremony takes place in London on June 9th 2010.

More information: http://www.se100.co.uk/se100-news/100409-first-rbs-se100-data-report-to-be-revealed-in-weeks.php