1.1 A 5 step programme for early childhood health promotion
As you heard in the video, the 5 step programme aims to support you to seek ways to promote the health of the children in your setting. Figure 1 is a diagram which illustrates each of the steps.
Below is a detailed explanation of the purpose of each step and how each step will be achieved.
Step 1 | Early childhood health profile | The content of the EC Health Profile is designed to assist you to consider the health needs of the children and families in your setting. On completion of this stage, you are encouraged to decide on a health promotion priority for the children in the setting. |
Step 2 | Early childhood health promotion tool | The purpose of this step is to focus on identifying the benefits of the health promotion intervention and for you to reflect on how you are going to implement and evaluate the intervention. |
Step 3 | Illustrative diagram of the aim and drivers for the intervention (adapted from Bryk et al., 2010) | The purpose of this step is to focus on the chosen intervention. The questions in the diagram will encourage you to select a specific health promotion aim. You are encouraged to consider what the primary and secondary drivers of the aim will be. This will be discussed and completed during the initial interview. Step 3 includes a discussion of the timeline for the selected intervention. |
Step 4 | Mid-way progress: questions to assess the progress made and next steps | The purpose of this step is to take stock of how the intervention is going; to reflect on progress, identify any barriers or challenges to success, identify solutions. |
Step 5 | End of implementation of HP intervention: questions to evaluate how the intervention went and to identify next steps | The purpose of this step is to identify the end of intervention impact on children, families and practitioners; to assess the sustainability of the intervention and to identify the findings and how they can be disseminated to inform best practice in promoting children’s health. |
The following sections will look at each of the steps in detail, giving explanations of their aims. The sections will include videos from the practitioners in the nursery that used the 5 steps in the pilot research.