Food and Health in Focus
The project aimed to provide a whole approach to Food and Health in Children's Centres in Bolton. The main initiatives were:
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To produce food and health guidelines with up-to-date, evidence based information, to be used as a resource and basis for giving basic advice.
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To deliver training in food and health issues for staff in order to facilitate the food and health team in delivering effective and consistent healthy eating advice.
Aims and Objectives
The aims of the initiative were:
- To enable and empower all staff working within Children's Centres to actively promote healthy eating by presenting consistent messages and providing a supportive environment.
- To increase awareness amongst staff about their potential role in promoting healthy eating.
- To create a 'healthy eating' ethos throughout the Children's Centre community by adopting positive attitudes backed up by consistent practices.
- To increase knowledge and awareness of food and health issues and provide appropriate tools to address them.
Partner Organisations
All staff working in and for Children Centres.
Methodology
The Food and Health In Focus guidelines provide up-to-date, evidence-based information on nutrition throughout the lifecycles and other food and health issues. They are comprised of six sections so the user can go directly to a particular area of interest:
Section 1 : Introduction A background to food and health
It emphasises the need for such guidance and gives a clear picture of current food and nutrition issues and suggests what can be done to lower barriers to healthy eating.
Section 2: Guidelines to a healthy diet
Core information about what healthy eating is about. The information is broken down into the different food groups giving the main recommendations and examples of practical tips.
Section 3: Lifecycles
This section goes through each of the major lifecycles and follows a common pattern of: a brief introduction; the key nutrients and food groups at that stage; other important nutritional considerations; and frequently asked questions.
Section 4: Appendix
Additional information beyond what is contained in section 2 and 3 and a page of useful websites.
Section 5: Catering guidelines and recipes
Aimed at those people who provide food to the public or would like to know how to use healthier catering practices. It gives practical suggestions on how to offer healthier food. It includes catering for specail dietary requirments and gives guidance on providing healthy buffets. Some healthy recipes are also included.
Section 6: Fact Sheets
Handy fact sheets on several food and health topics.
Evaluation
We will be conducting staff surveys in the near future to assess whether we are achieving our objectives.
Lessons Learnt
Implementing such guidance within the Centre's has not been an easy task. It is one that we are still very much in the process of doing. We have yet to deliver the accredited training due to several reasons. We have delivered several workshops however staff attendance was poor. These issues will hopefully be resolved in the future by placing the training as integral to Children's Centre targets.
Future Developments
In order to achieve all the objectives and to implement the guidelines more effectively, we will be offering several training opportunities including an accredited course and several workshops on various food and health issues. As the funding for the guidelines has been provided by Sure Start its general use is for staff working in this area. Our healthy schools team have purchased a number of copies to send out to schools in Bolton to support them in achieving the healthy eating element of their award. We feel that it would be a great opportunity to widen this resource further and make it available throughout the PCT if funding becomes available.
Contact Details
Name: Gemma Sloan/Nicola Evans
Phone: 01204 360094
Email: gemma.sloan@bolton.nhs.uk
Organisation: Bolton PCT
Address: Food and Health Team Nutrition and Dietetics, Lever Chambers, Ashburner Street, Bolton BL1 1SQ