Nottinghamshire County Council plans to build on its broader whole system approach around the community food environment, to develop food skills, access and support for families with children in the early years.
The Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and administered by the Local Government Association. Public Health England also providing expert support and advice.
Progress
- Completed successful delivery of Healthier@Home meal kit pilot
- One setting achieved Food for life Early Years Award early
- One primary school has moved from frozen meals delivery to cooking meals inhouse - substantive change
- Healthy Start - series of Best Start case studies submitted to Andrea Leadsom MP, providing evidence for Start for Life spending review - positive feedback about the case studies was received from Andrea Leadsom
- Community of Practice - five sessions delivered with range of stakeholders, evaluated and report available.
Challenges
- Linking together work across the system around food growing/insecurity and trailblazer work and sustaining it
- PHSO recruitment taking time and capacity and impacting output
- Year 3 plan delivery slightly slowed down due to colleagues leaving - recruitment taking place.
Learnings
- Healthier@Home meal kit proved supply chain can be flexed to meet different food supply demand
- FOOD (Food On Our Doorstep) Clubs opening - increasing volunteering opportunities across the county
- Engaging with communities from a distance is a barrier and children’s centre staff are a community asset and best placed to liaise with local community (local connection)
- Reviewing methods of communication is important. How people want to receive information is very valuable and not ‘one size fits all’
- Starting to see tangible example of whole system approach way of working. Key is to pick one part and work on that to maximise impact.
Next steps
- Food for life interviews
- Healthier@Home meal kit system impact reflections at project team meeting
- Governance interviews
- Stakeholder interviews for Food for Life award to be conducted.