Healthy child development

Every child deserves the right and the opportunity to grow, play, learn and thrive. Babies start life ready to grow and learn but to reach developmental milestones, they need to be supported by nurturing relationships, nutritious food, a safe environment and opportunities for play and learning.

Our healthy child development services provide positive experiences that support the physical and mental health which we know underpins development across physical, cognitive, emotional and social areas.

Example projects

Talking transitions

Talking Transitions brings early years settings, primary schools and family centres together to focus on children’s communication and language development and their emotional wellbeing through this important time.

Schools and their ‘feeder’ early years settings are brought together to create individual satellites. Focusing on communication and language as a catalyst for change, each satellite collaboratively develops, devises and delivers bespoke mini-transition projects around their children’s speech, language and communication needs. The project also helps to raise awareness of the importance of communication and language through developing and implementing parental engagement activities and community work.

The project has three strands:

Learning Together: all practitioners come together for the 10-week Elklan 3-5’s accredited speech, language and communication (SLC) course.

Working Together: practitioners share ideas and reflect on best SLC practice in order to support those children transitioning from one setting to another.
Being Together: settings jointly develop community based events for children and their families, raising awareness of the importance of communication and language.

In addition, the project ensures all early years settings encourage parents to sign up to receive online ‘Weekend Talk Tips,’ which offer exciting and innovative new ways to boost a child’s speech and language skills. Regular network opportunities bring the ‘Satellites’ together to share experiences and best practice.

The Talking Transitions project won the  Children & Young People Now Early Years Award in 2023 for its successful work in supporting children’s speech, language and communication skills to ease their transition into school.  

Owl Babies (Lewisham and Lincolnshire)

Owl Babies is a five-week interactive course for babies under six months old. Recognising that outdoor experiences are vital for brain development, Owl Babies helps families learn that outdoor adventures support and enhance babies’ healthy brain development. The sessions explores how a baby’s brain grows and makes connections, supporting parents’/carers’ relationships with their baby and strengthening their bonding and attachment.

Each session focuses on one of the Five to Thrive activities and offers the opportunity to experience together the awe and wonder of connecting with Nature, and looks at the health benefits of being outdoors, including the importance of Vitamin D.

Owl Babies was piloted in Lewisham as part of the children’s centre programme delivery, and now also runs in Lincolnshire.

95% of parents participating in an Owl Babies course state that attending the course has helped them:

feel very confident about bonding with their baby

understand how a baby’s brain develops and the importance of warm, attuned parenting to this process

develop their understanding of how outdoor spaces and access to the natural world supports their baby’s brain development

develop their understanding of the health benefits of being outdoors, including the importance of Vitamin D

use outdoors spaces and the natural world differently

Parental feedback

“I am better aware that when he is fussy it’s part of normal development, I’m able to be more patient.”

“Since the session, I’ve made an effort to go out a lot more. I feel a lot more confident singing to her out in public. The session has been great: learning about the importance of outside for babies’ development.”

“I have learned skills to ensure time spent bonding is prioritised. Loved this group, found it very informative and uplifting with such lovely encouragement and advice.

Early Years Nutrition Support

Our Early Years Nutrition Support service is a suite of comprehensive nutrition resources to help early years settings promote healthy eating best practice, developed in partnership with registered nutritionists and dietitians.

Resources include:

Comprehensive resource packs for settings delivering meals and snacks, and those accepting food from home – including sample menus, recipes and policy templates

Virtual consultations and support

A menu-checking service

Menu and recipe development service

Virtual staff training

Support for packed lunches and other food from home

Settings can mix and match the resources that work for them – and once they’ve made their first purchase, they will get access to the Early Years Nutrition Support ‘Committed’ logo to display on their website and any promotional material, demonstrating their commitment to good nutrition.

For those further along in their nutrition journey, we also have the option of our menu accreditation and quality mark services.

If you would like to find out more about what we can offer, or to discuss a bulk purchase for settings in your area, please email gary.croxon@eyalliance.org.uk.

Further examples

Play and learn support service (Bradford)

This service is designed to support and uplift informal universal play and learn provision, including baby and toddler groups, across the Bradford district. Its core aim is to ensure these settings are of high quality, promote wellbeing, and encourage health-positive activity, while also positively influencing the home learning environment for young children.

The service places particular emphasis on supporting groups in the most deprived communities, ensuring they receive the additional help needed to:

Improve access to high-quality early learning experiences

Support families in their role as children’s first educators

Enhance outcomes for children attending these settings

Tubes of life (Luton)

Tubes of Life is a programme designed to help professionals working with pregnant families and new parents to develop methods to share important messages about the importance of oxygen maximisation for brain development.

It seems to inform parents:

how nicotine and tobacco disrupt the flow of oxygenated blood to the developing foetus during pregnancy.
that a baby’s body is proportionally different to an adult, making them more vulnerable to certain situations which can impact their access to oxygen.
that how parents choose to position their baby for sleep may unintentionally impact the baby’s access to oxygen and why incline positions add risk to a sleeping baby.