Childhood obesity figures in the UK hardly bear repeating, with rates rising for decades.
The Government’s National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for 2019-20 found obesity prevalence in Reception had increased from 9.7 per cent in 2018-19 to 9.9 per cent, while 13.3 per cent of children living in the most deprived areas were obese, compared with 6 per cent of those in the least deprived areas.
In response, as part of the second chapter of its Childhood Obesity Plan, the Government has launched a Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme, asking five councils to lead projects to develop local solutions to childhood obesity that can be shared across the country.
Each local authority will receive £100,000 per year for three years from the Department of Health and Social Care, administered by the Local Government Association, to progress their project.
In Nottinghamshire, where almost a quarter (22.5 per cent) of children are overweight or obese by the time they reach Reception, seven nurseries will take part in a project to improve the quality of meals, food education and nutrition-related family outreach in early years settings across the county.
Learning Tree Nursery 2 in Ashfield, Creative Hands Childcare in Broxtowe, Serendipitys Day Nursery in Newark, Kidzgrove Daycare in Mansfield, West Bassetlaw Day Nursery in Bassetlaw and Good Foundations Day Nursery in Gedling have been chosen to represent each borough of the county, with one further setting to be confirmed.
ACHIEVING AN AWARD
Over the course of the project, which runs until June 2022, staff will be invited to attend practical training sessions, online-only for now, on a variety of topics including food quality and sourcing, the Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines, menu development, fussy eaters and engaging with parents.
With support from the Soil Association’s Food for Life programme, nurseries will also work towards the Food for Life Early Years Award, fulfilling criteria ranging from signposting parents to Healthy Start vouchers to helping children grow and cook their own food.
Chloe Smee, senior programme manager at the Soil Association, says, ‘The award looks at improving the quality of food served and meeting best practice guidance around the nutritional quality of meals, as well as considering environmental sourcing and local food production in food sourcing and menu planning.’
The aim is for most settings to gain the award by early 2022, with time towards the end of the project set aside for sharing learning between settings and feeding back outcomes to the network of other ‘Trailblazer Authorities’.
TAKING THE LEAD
As well as ensuring food quality, the project will focus on food education, food leadership and food in the community.
‘The food education side is about supporting children to cook and grow food and understand what good food tastes, feels and smells like,’ says Ms Smee. ‘We are trying to build an adventurous approach, so children are really confident eating fresh, minimally processed foods. We want them to be used to eating socially so they can enjoy meals and be set up to succeed when they get to school.’
The food leadership element aims to help staff be good food role models. ‘We support nursery leaders in understanding what good food is and what their role is in providing it. It is not just about the nursery manager; role-modelling good food behaviours should run right through the staff body.
‘Under-fives look up to nursery practitioners and spend a lot of their waking hours with them, so it is a critical role for shaping food behaviours,’ Ms Smee explains.
ENGAGING FAMILIES
The project also aims to help nurseries engage with families, communicate what they are doing, and ensure positive food behaviour is maintained at home.
‘Nursery practitioners often want help explaining to parents what they are doing in a way that is non-judgemental and empowers parents to keep those behaviours alive,’ says Ms Smee.
‘At this stage, parents are just learning what it means to feed their children and to eat together as a family, so there is a significant impact you can have on the 16 to 18 years a child will be at home.’
CHALLENGES
Ms Smee acknowledges the project will not be without challenges. ‘The menu changes we are asking for can come with cost implications. We try to avoid that by balancing out, for example, the quality of the meat with the number of times a week it is served, but it can be a barrier.’
She adds, ‘Nurseries are very busy places and there are lots of conflicting priorities, particularly in the current climate as many are really up against it financially and in terms of staff time and resource. But once the will is established, everything in the programme is achievable and lots of the nurseries are doing great work already.’
CASE STUDY: Learning Tree Nursery 2, Ashfield
Laura Jones, nursery manager at the Learning Tree Nursery 2 in Ashfield, one of the three boroughs worst affected by childhood obesity in Nottinghamshire, says the project will help the setting improve its already strong food offer.
‘We’ve always prided ourselves on our menus and the fact we provide five portions of fruit and veg, wholegrain rice and pasta, and use local food providers. But during one of my first online sessions with the Soil Association, they looked at our menus and suggested things we hadn’t thought of, like increasing the variety of carbs we offer or making sure all the fish is Marine Conservation Society-approved.
‘They even suggested making our own baked beans. They gave us a really simple recipe, and we’re going to give it a whirl. There’s always room for improvement.’
Engaging parents
As a result of the pandemic, Ms Jones says the project’s emphasis on working with parents is particularly useful.
‘It’s really hard to engage parents at the moment. We have contactless drop-offs, parents’ evenings aren’t happening, and it’s very cold to stand at the door chatting. It’s all very well us making changes, but we need parents to know what we are serving and why.
‘We have started to talk about adapting our ideas. For example, I usually send out sunflower seeds every spring for children to grow at home. This spring, I’m going to send carrot seeds and extend that in the summer by sending out recipe cards too.’
Rise in fussy eating
She says over lockdown the number of fussy eaters at the setting has increased.
‘We have more children we need to support at mealtimes. Parents are working from home and sometimes they’re homeschooling one child with a toddler running around too. Habits are slackening, routines are going out the window. The project has a section coming up on fussy eating and I think that will really help us.’
When asked what her aims are for the project, Ms Jones laughs. ‘We want a big shiny certificate! It’s very important in early years to get a certificate!’
But, she adds seriously, ‘Honestly, for me it’s to share this beyond the four walls of the nursery. Even if we just have one family saying their child who wouldn’t eat a homemade sausage casserole last week is smashing it this week, that’s an achievement. We are one of a chain of seven nurseries and we want to pass it on to them too.’
Trailblazer projects
Other councils in the Trailblazer scheme are:
- Birmingham City – it will offer health, nutrition and physical-activity-focused apprenticeships in areas with the highest obesity rates.
- Pennine Lancashire Consortium, which will place restrictions on cafés and restaurants that do not offer healthier options, and incentivise those that do.
- Bradford – it is working with Islamic religious settings to address the higher rates of excess weight in South Asian children in the area.
- Lewisham (London) – it will restrict high in fat, salt or sugar advertising and run health-promoting adverts in unsold advertising spaces.
