HEMMING COMMUNICATIONS - THE KEEP KENT BREASTFEEDING CAMPAIGN

KEEP KENT BREASTFEEDING

CASE STUDY ON SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

Summary: in July 2017 Kent County Council (KCC) proposed dramatic cuts to the provision of breastfeeding
support services. As a passionate breastfeeding peer supporter (volunteer), Tannice Hemming of Hemming
Communications donated her marketing and PR skills to the campaign to oppose the changes. What follows
is a report on the success of this very local, niche project, which aimed to encourage Kent’s families to
respond to KCC’s consultation.

Result summary: As a result of the Keep Kent Breastfeeding campaign, the initial consultation was
withdrawn and the council was forced to rewrite a second. The primary goal, of encouraging hundreds of
consultation responses, was smashed and the consultation received 1,294 responses1 . Kent County Council
later stated that, on average, their consultations usually only receive around 150 responses2.

1
Source: Freedom of Information requests (number combined from two) available at: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/
tannice_hemming

2Source: Freedom of Information request available: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/454870/response/1102692/attach/html/

2/Response%20all%20information%20to%20be%20supplied.pdf.html

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HEMMING COMMUNICATIONS - THE KEEP KENT BREASTFEEDING CAMPAIGN

HOW THE KEEP KENT BREASTFEEDING CAMPAIGN

WAS BORN
Objective
When the breastfeeding support community heard that KCC wanted to make significant changes to the
breastfeeding support services provided in the county, there was profound concern. As a volunteer
breastfeeding peer supporter, our Marketing and Communications Director, Tannice Hemming, decided to lend
our expertise to a ‘donated’ campaign.

Goals
Kent County Council had opened a consultation on the changes, open to both professionals and service
users. Respondents could answer this consultation online and we decided to do what we could to increase
responses to it as well as raising general awareness of the proposed changes. Secondary goals included
targeting national media organisations, such as BBC and ITV, as well as more local TV, radio and newspapers
and gathering page fans on the Keep Kent Breastfeeding Facebook page.

Solution
Hemming Communications developed the website keepkentbreastfeeding.co.uk and the Facebook page
fb.me/keepkentbf overnight on the 26th July 2017. Tannice also wrote 8 press releases throughout the
campaign and made herself available to media organisations, speaking to BBC Radio Kent, KMTV and Kent
Online as well as various local newspapers on a number of occasions.

Jacques Hemming, our Director of Software Development, created an ‘email wizard’ that allowed interested
consultation respondents to quickly write a targeted, comprehensive email consultation response they could
then send to the council. This was later removed from our website when the council received too many emails3
and stopped accepting consultation responses except via their online form.

Results
As already outlined, the number of consultations far exceeded the council’s average number (150) of
consultation responses, at 1,294 responses. Additionally, the amount of emails received by the council
exceeded their ability to process them and they withdrew the ability to do so. Finally, the original consultation
was withdrawn by the council and rewritten, due to the concern raised by the campaign. The secondary goal
of raising awareness of the campaign was more than met with over 1,000 fans of the Keep Kent Breastfeeding
Facebook page. KMTV featured the campaign twice4 and we also gained coverage on ITV Meridien, BBC
News, BBC Radio Kent, KMFM, most local Kent newspapers and in online publications.

3
Source: Freedom of Information Request response available: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/421756/response/1027815/
attach/html/3/FOI%2017%201318%20Response.docx.html

4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhmJx8a41R0

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HEMMING COMMUNICATIONS - KEEP KENT BREASTFEEDING CAMPAIGN

DIGITAL
STRATEGY
ANALYSIS

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HEMMING COMMUNICATIONS - KEEP KENT BREASTFEEDING CAMPAIGN

At the time of writing (12.04.2019) , the Keep Kent Breastfeeding Facebook page has 1,051 likes and 1069
follows. These numbers were all built within a very short space of time. Within two days of the website and
Facebook page’s launch (26 July 2017) , there were 200 likes. By the 4th August, this rose to 600 likes. On the
23rd October, when the second consultation was released, the like count was up to around 750. The
campaign hit 1000 likes as the campaign came to an end in March 2018, when the new breastfeeding support
service began.

In total, there were 197 posts made on the Keep Kent Breastfeeding Facebook page. The average reach
(mean) of the posts was 1347 views. 81 of the 197 posts reached more than 1,000 views and the average
reach (mean) of these was 2595. The total number of engagements for these most popular 81 posts was 830,
meaning an average engagement rate of 10.2 engagements per post. The single post with the highest views
reached 11,800 views. The total number of engagements across all 197 posts was 2,695, which averages at
13.7 engagements per post.

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CONCLUSION
The campaign to Keep Kent Breastfeeding succeeded in its aims to increase awareness of Kent County
Council’s consultation proposing changes to the county’s breastfeeding support services. The county of Kent
saw 17,467 births in 20175 and with a UK-wide breastfeeding initiation rate of 81%6, breastfeeding support is
essential for those families who need it.

“All NHS Trusts [in Kent] except Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust have initiation rates below the
England average (73.8%) as of Q1 2015-16, however rates have fallen since 2013-14. There has been an
increase in rates in Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust and East Kent Hospital University Foundation Trust
over the same period. Medway Foundation NHS Trust rates have remained about the same.”
- Kent Public Health Observatory on Breastfeeding, June 2017.

The results of the campaign are far more impressive than we ever imagined and that is thanks, in no small part
to the women who spend their time supporting breastfeeding families - many as part of their career, but a
huge amount as volunteers. The campaign also manifested in a march on Kent County Council’s HQ which
was very well attended for a group of mothers with young children, and saw Anna Le Grange, IBLC and
Tannice Hemming deliver Anna’s petition of almost 5,000 signatures. The petition to the council (view Anna’s
speech) culminated in a debate meeting on February 8th, 2018, where it was considered but ultimately
rejected.

Breastfeeding women in the county of Kent are very passionate about the need for local expertise and that’s
another reason why the campaign caught the imagination of so many. For more information about various
breastfeeding groups in the county, please visit kentbabymatters.org.uk (for groups run by PS Breastfeeding
CIC) and the Kent County Council breastfeeding support service.

The campaign did not manage to change the final outcome of the consultation, but it did encourage
conversation in the county’s local media about maternal health, post-natal support, solidarity amongst women
and the health of infants in the county. It also created a better network of breastfeeding support professionals
and volunteers who found they had a voice that was being heard - they were able to shout loud and clear that
breastfeeding support is absolutely crucial and that it should be delivered by people who are experienced and
qualified to do so.

5
Source: ONS

6 Source: UNICEF https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/about/breastfeeding-in-the-uk/

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For more information on the campaign, please visit keepkentbreastfeeding.co.uk, fb.me/keepkentbf or visit the
YouTube channel for the opportunity to hear some of the radio interviews and watch KMTV segments. More
videos are also available on the Facebook page.

Thanks are also due to: everyone who filled in the consultation, anyone who shared our social posts, links,
videos and pictures or who signed the petition, the volunteer breastfeeding peer supporters, the wonderful
IBCLCs and breastfeeding counsellors whose expertise is so invaluable and those who stood up for the
breastfeeding women of Kent by directly campaigning, marching with us or provided support in any other way.

Special thanks also due to (in no particular order): Anna Le Grange (IBCLC and Petition lead); service users
Caroline Mitford and Natasha Jade, and also Hannah Croft (IBCLC) and Katy Lockey (Breastfeeding
Counsellor) who contributed their significant expertise, experience, time and effort.

NEWS COVERAGE LINKS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhmJx8a41R0
https://pressreader.com/@nickname11734119/csb_ob2yELlJF4uuRnikqjFL0ph5UCTGHTVG-
lENu_9yjEEnr_TgpU4j0cMTZ1cTkL4O

http://mysevenoakscommunity.com/mums-who-want-to-breastfeed-get-help-from-council/

https://www.mykentfamily.co.uk/baby/mums-protest-at-clinics-cull-159886/

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/15617720.controversial-kent-county-council-breastfeeding-plans-
relaunched/

http://mytunbridgewells.com/kent-breastfeeding-services/

https://www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/news/article/36/
sevenoaks_district_council_enhances_breastfeeding_support_across_the_district

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/sheerness/news/mums-fear-cuts-to-breastfeeding-support-services-in-
swale-135678/

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/kent-county-council-cutting-breastfeeding-services-161397/

https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/breastfeeding-services-kent-been-cut-1329260

https://consultations.kent.gov.uk/consult.ti/InfantFeeding/consultationHome?

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