January 12th, 2012 saw thelaunch of the new VoluntaryGuidelines for Food and Drink in

Early Years Settings in England by theSchool Food Trust. The guidelines wereeagerly anticipated and heralded as thedefinitive document for all early yearsproviders. But, are they able to fulfil theirpromise, and make a real difference tothe health of the next generation?

There have long been calls for newNational Guidelines in England. Theprevious guidelines, which examinedgood and bad practice around thecountry; the level of knowledge aboutearly years nutrition amongst the earlyyears sector; and how this was beingused at grass roots level, wereoutdated, having been drawn up adecade before in 2001. Recent dataand research has shifted the focus fromschool meals onto the food we servethe under-fives in daycare. In short,early intervention is increasinglyrecognised as the key driver toimproving public health. And littlewonder when you consider:

■ we’ve known for some time that foodserved in early years settings is too highin fat, salt and sugar, and too low inimportant nutrients;■ children under five have been gettingsteadily heavier: at least one in fivechildren are obese by the time theyenter Reception year;

New voluntaryguidelines havebeen launched forfood and drink inEngland’s earlyyears settings, butthey don’t go farenough, saysNigel Denby...

healthy eating:THIS WAY?

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■ overweight and obese children are likely tobecome overweight and obese adults;■ poorer children have poorer diets, healthoutcomes and life chances;■ more children are in some form of daycare than ever before and the figuresgrow year on year.

The review and subsequent guidance appliesto all forms of daycare – from children’s

Perhaps the biggest obstacle tomandatory standards is how theycould be monitored. Ofstedcurrently monitor and evaluate theSchool meal standards, a task theyaccomplish with the aid ofassessment tools developed byThe School Food Trust. Schoolshave self-assessment tools to helpthem produce their evidence formeeting the standards – againprovided by the Trust – so whycould the same not have beenproduced for early yearsinspectors and providers?

Assessingprogress

centres to day nurseries to childminders.Trying to provide ‘one size fits all’ guidance isperhaps the first stumbling block in the way ofdelivering higher standards. Put simply, shoulda lone childminder who is responsible forevery aspect of childcare really be expectedto deliver the same level of planning and detailin her food provision as a chain of nurseries?The childminder can, of course, deliverexcellent, highly nutritious food, and many do.But the tools to help the childminder deliver,and the means by which they demonstratestheir standards, surely need to be different tothose used by the nursery chain with itsmanagement infrastructure and teams ofdedicated cooks and kitchen assistants.

The resultsSo, what did the review discover?

■ There’s a huge amount of guidance relatingto food, nutrition and healthy eating in theearly years already in the public domain.■ The availability of this information does notimprove knowledge in key early yearsworkers. Those key workers whodemonstrate good knowledge have activelysought their own training; it was not part oftheir general childcare training.■ There’s widespread confusion aboutappropriate portion sizes, managing foodallergies and intolerances and hidden

ingredients in pre-prepared foods, e.g.additives, hidden salt and sugar.■ Poor awareness about the Healthy StartVitamin Scheme is widespread.■ Despite there being a lot of guidance, mostof it is very theoretical – there’s an acute needfor practical training and examples ofworkable menus, recipes and menuchecklists.■ Support and guidance for parents ispatchy and localised.■ Large variations exist in local authoritypolicies supporting early years nutrition.■ No accredited specialist qualifications forearly years catering Staff exist.■ While childcare staff (includingchildminders) receive plenty of training andCPD, very few receive any training in foodand nutrition.■ Most early years catering staff areneglected when it comes to CPD and trainingbeyond food hygiene and health and safety.■ The best placed organisation to review foodand nutrition provision in the early years isOfsted. However, Ofsted inspectors do not havethe necessary experience or tool kits to carryout these reviews efficiently and accurately.

While these findings may not have been agreat surprise, they added fuel to theoptimism that the School Food Trustguidance would bridge the gap betweenwhere early years nutrition is currently, andwhere we’d all like it to be.

But whilst the 107-page guidancedocument is packed with good qualityinformation, in my opinion it’s not practicalenough. The guidance includes a lot of theoriginal work laid down by the CarolineWalker Trust, Eating Well for the under 5s(2010); there’s more detail and guidanceabout portion sizes but that’s the mostnoticeable change. Elsewhere, there’s littlesupport around managing allergies andintolerances and no guidance on where toaccess specific training. Most disappointingof all, adhering to the guidance remainsvoluntary – early years providers can chooseto totally ignore it if they want to. If you dochoose to follow the guidance to the letter,there’s no stamp of approval process toacknowledge and recognise yourcommitment to the wider community. Sowhere’s the incentive?

To be effective, the guidance needed toinspire an “I can do that” response from bothchildminder and large corporate nurserygroup alike. Most of the providers (large andsmall) I have spoken to have had a more“where do we start?” reaction.

Where can you start?It’s pretty simple, actually: you can, if youwish, work to food-based standards whereyou commit to include different food groupsin different amounts and frequencies on yourmenu, e.g. fruit and vegetables served atevery meal and snack. Or you can follownutrient-based standards where you committo providing a specific amount of calories andnutrients at each meal and snack through

For further

information

and support in

meeting and

exceeding the Voluntary

Guidelines for Food and Drink in

Early Years Settings in England go

to grub4life.org.uk or contact

Nigel Denby at

Nigel@grub4life.com

findoutmore

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standard, analysed recipes. Both can work in practice.

It was hoped the guidance would supportboth food-based and nutrient-basedapproaches, and offer practical menuchecklists, nutritionally-analysed menus andrecipes that all providers, no matter what size,could immediately start to use. Furthermore,we wanted the guidance to have an affiliateprogramme or award scheme for providers tosign up to. This would have been a valuablemarketing tool and a way to show theircommitment to meeting the standards. Itwould have served as a real incentive to putthe effort in and lead the way.

Raising the standards of early years foodand nutrition doesn’t have to be expensive,and it doesn’t require an army of nutritionexperts. In Wales, providers actively opt in tomeet the Welsh national standards. There areportion-controlled, analysed recipes to use ifrequired, or there is support to upgrade inhouse recipes to this level of detail.

Training is being developed to give key staffthe skills they need to understand, interpretand deliver better food. Most importantlyuptake is excellent and it’s working.

A commitment to excellenceIn my view, the School Food Trust guidancefor food has been a missed opportunity.Healthy eating never has been and never hasto be rocket science, not even for the under-fives. In my experience, support, practicaltraining and accessible resources are the keyto building the confidence of the staff on thefront line.

COOKING!getShepherd’s Pie

Ingredients (4–6 servings)

1 onion

1 red pepper

2 carrots – peeled and grated

2 tsp dried parsley

2 tbsp Oil

450g (1lb) lean minced lamb

250ml (8floz) chicken stock

1 tsp Marmite

100g (4oz) mushrooms – washed and sliced

450g (1lb) potatoes – peeled and chopped

2 tsp margarine, dash of milk

■ Preheat oven to 180c, 350F, Gas 4■ Soften the onion, pepper, grated carrotand parsley in a frying pan with a little oil.■ Add minced lamb, brown and drain offany excess fat.

■ Add chicken stock and Marmite andsimmer for 20 minutes.■ Add the mushrooms to the mixture andcook for a further 5 minutes■ Spoon mixture into a large dish.■ To make the topping, boil the potatoesfor mash. When soft, mash with margarineand milk. Spread over the meat, and makepeaks by running a fork over the surface.■ Cook in the oven for 15 minutes.■ Serve with vegetables.

Try these tasty and nutritious recipes

The likelihood is that it will be many moreyears before there is another opportunity toreview or enforce food and nutritionstandards for the under-fives in childcare.Until then, it’s up to you to step up to thechallenge. For those of you who are ready,we would encourage you to seek supportand promote and celebrate yourcommitment to excellence. Sooner or later,those who choose to ignore the issue willeither fall by the wayside or be exposed forfailing the children in their care.

Mixed Berry Compote withCrème Fraiche

Ingredients (4–6 servings)

500g (16oz) frozen fruits of the forest

50g (1/12oz) sugar

Crème fraiche

■ Put all the fruit into a heavy saucepan, andsprinkle the sugar over the top. Simmer for10–12 minutes.■ Serve hot or cold with vanilla ice cream.

Kangacook provide cateringsupport in the form of cooks,kitchen assistants and porters.They ensure all kitchen staffcomplete skills tests in line withcurrent legislation and will havecompleted food hygiene training.All candidates will have anenhanced CRB disclosure and willhave undergone a face to faceinterview and registration. Formore info, visitkangacrew.com/kangacook

Too few cooks?