Learn about the Childhood Obesity Trailblazer project, healthy eating resources and find information, training and support services for Early Years practitioners.
About the project
The Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme was a time-limited initiative aimed at testing innovative approaches to tackling childhood obesity at a local level. This project concluded in 2022, and while the programme has now ended, the insights and learning continue to inform ongoing public health work. For further information please contact foodenvironment@nottscc.gov.uk
The Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Project (COTP) is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed by the Local Government Association. It promotes a test and learn approach to try out innovative approaches to using local authority levers to address specific drivers of childhood obesity and to reduce inequalities in childhood obesity.
Nottinghamshire County Council were successful in being one of five Local Authorities selected to take part in this 3-year national programme.
Project aims
The programme’s aims include
- sharing of learning and best practice with other authorities
- to identify actions which government can take to deliver change at scale.
Project purpose
The purpose of the Nottinghamshire Childhood Obesity Trailblazer project is to improve the home and community food environment of families with children in the early years living in areas of higher childhood obesity prevalence.
Project focus
The focus of the project is on how the local system can positively influence, enable, and support change within the home and community food environment for families with children in the early years (under 5’s).
Our initial Trailblazer work will be focussed on areas of Nottinghamshire with the highest levels of childhood obesity (in Bassetlaw, Mansfield and Ashfield Districts).
It is a cross Council and partnership approach bringing together skills and expertise from
- Public Health services
- Early Years services
- School Catering
- Family Hub networks
- Childcare and Early Years providers
- local healthy lifestyle services
- local parents.
Project objectives
Our Trailblazer programme has four objectives:
- Making access to affordable healthy food for families easier
- Improve quality of food provision through early years settings
- Enable parents to develop good eating habits with their children
- Promote consistent messages on healthy food for pre-school children
Learn more about what we are going to do to meet those objectives for residents.
Objective 1: Making access to affordable healthy food for families easier
Focus groups with parents told us that time pressures due to parental and employment responsibilities and the ability to find healthy recipes can be challenging. Some families did not feel that healthy food was affordable. Time, cost, access, preparation skills were all barriers families experienced to eating healthier meals.
We are going to
- use the school meals supply chain, we’ll be testing out the idea of nutritionally balanced meal kit for families
- work with Family Hub's to work towards centres being a community food asset for families.
- offer healthy affordable food through a FOOD Club in some Family Hub's
- work with partners locally to raise awareness of Healthy Start Vouchers.
Objective 2: Improve quality of food provision through early years settings
Local childcare and nursery providers told us that they work hard to provide healthy meals and snacks to the children they look after, and they are keen to be able to provide information and advise parents and carers on healthy eating.
We are going to
- work with local Early Year providers to understand what help and support they need and develop food and nutrition confidence, knowledge and skills
- test out enhancing and broadening the Council’s School meals offer to include Early Year providers
Objective 3: Enable parents to develop good eating habits with their children
Evidence tells us that parental feeding styles and practices can have an impact on children’s eating behaviours
We are going to:
- roll out the child feeding guide training to front line practitioners to give them the evidence based information to share with parents
- engage with local parents so they have a say in how the projects delivered
- investigate ways in which we can enhance social eating opportunities within communities with a focus on the early years?
Objective 4: Promote consistent messages on healthy food for pre-school children
The messages on healthy eating for children under 5 differ from those for older children and adults, which can make it difficult and confusing for parents and care givers to know what meals are right for young children.
We are going to create momentum and raise awareness through developing a range of simple, consistent healthy eating messages specifically targeted for early years
Project reports
- Early Years Provider survey - case study report [PDF]
- Early Years Settings survey (April to May 2020) report [PDF]
- Early Years Survey (April to May 2020) report results infographic [JPEG]
Stakeholder bulletin
- Early Years and Food Stakeholder Bulletin Summer 2021 [PDF]
- Early Years and Food Stakeholder Bulletin Autumn 2020 [PDF]
More information about the project
If you would like to discuss the project in more detail or be a partner in the project, please email andy.white2@nottscc.gov.uk
You can also find information about the national programme on Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme (Local Government Association)