Children’s health and food programme strands

Homes

Homes and early years settings are where most children are first exposed to different foods. These are an important space for establishing food preferences and habits, and have a long-lasting impact on a child’s health.

With this understanding, we focus on homes to impact health early in a child’s life.

How we improve children’s health in homes

Through our homes strand, we aim to support healthy food at home for all children, regardless of where they live. We focus on a few areas, including:

• Supporting mothers and babies from pregnancy through to two years old, to encourage the healthy development of maternal weight gain, breastfeeding, weaning and early feeding.
• Working with early years settings to promote opportunities for all children to eat healthily
• Making more healthy and affordable food options available to families at home

Schools

Schools play a key role in improving children’s health.

Primary and secondary schools have a significant impact on children’s health and weight. In the UK, they often have control over at least one meal per day for the children in their care. In our boroughs, many schools serve their pupils two meals a day – especially for children whose families are less affluent.

Schools are also often well connected in their community and have strong links with local families. As such, schools are a space with a significant opportunity to ensure all children can have healthy, nutritious meals.

How we improve children’s health in schools

Through our schools strand, we and our partners support the take-up of healthy and nutritious food options throughout the school day. Our areas of focus include:

• Supporting schools to comply with food standards for all meals and snacks on site
• Working closely with local councils and catering firms to improve the food offer in schools
• Co-designing healthier school environments with children and staff

Streets

The design and make-up of public spaces has a strong impact on what we eat.

The moment families and children step outside, they are flooded by invitations and incentives that encourage unhealthy food options. This is amplified in inner-city high streets.

We look at streets in the whole, as a narrow focus on only one element (for example, fast food outlets) is likely to only tackle part of the problem. Our work aims to reduce the availability and prominence of energy-dense food and drinks in the entire food environment.

How we improve children’s health in streets

Through our streets strand, we work with partners to change the spaces where children and families spend time outside of home and school. Our areas of focus include:

• Redesigning food environments like shops and other food outlets so that all families have access to healthy options
• Developing new healthy products or reformulating existing ones to create healthier, affordable options
• Exploring ways to make healthier options more affordable and convenient than unhealthy options