THE county's health visitors are celebrating after being awarded 'baby friendly' accreditation by global children's charity Unicef.

The team of health visitors and family nurses at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been recognised for its work to support breastfeeding and help parents provide the best care for their children.

The stage three accreditation comes after three years of the service working to meet Unicef's standards as part of its Baby Friendly Initiative.

It is given after a rigorous process which includes feedback from mothers and staff assessments.

Sian Taylor, a health visitor who led the project, said: "This is a huge achievement - and it's been a real team effort by members of health visitor teams across the county.

"We want to support parents to make the best choices for their families, and the award recognised the high quality of the services we provide.

"All our clinicians now have annual training to make sure they can offer our families the most up-to-date information based on current research.

She added: "We feel much more confident that we are able to offer the right support if there are any problems."

The Unicef scheme was set up 20 years ago to support parents.