Hot cross monkey bunn, The NCT and LLL were included in the early discussions on joining together on this project, but at this time they felt unable to join in - the avenue is still open though.
It was felt that there was a need as many calls were falling through other helplines nets and that people should be able to contact their geogrphical closest helper and NONE of the organisations have full UK wide coverage, but collectively we do.
For information the ABM has loads of spare answering capacity and so far calls to the new number hasn't made a dent.
Unfortunately as may sometimes be the case - two calls can come along together (like buses)and then one can't get answered, but the counsellor then spends the next three days not having the phone ring!
The publicity should come along during breastfeeding week, there were various reason known only to the government why it went live a couple of weeks back and caught most of us on the hop (including the ABM and BfN i suspect).
Still the end result hopefully means that mums will have greater access to good information.