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Physical and mental health for young children
Physical and mental health for young children

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3.1 Identifying a health promotion priority

After the nursery had completed Step 1, and they had extended the scope of Step 1 to find out more from the parents, the nursery wanted to do more to promote healthy eating in the nursery. In the next video, Karen and Nicola, the managers in the setting who carried out the pilot research, explain their motivation for choosing healthy eating as a focus.

Activity 2 Managers’ perspectives of using the Toolkit

Timing: 5 minutes

In the following video, Karen and Nicola talk about their motivation for taking part in the research. As you listen, pick out the reasons they give.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 3 Karen and Nicola explaining their motivation for taking part in the research piloting the Toolkit
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Video 3 Karen and Nicola explaining their motivation for taking part in the research piloting the Toolkit
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Discussion

In the video, you’ll have heard Nicola and Karen explain that they were motivated to take part in the research because they had a desire to improve children’s health. They realised that as educators of young children, they’re well placed to help the children to make good choices. In relation to the children in their setting they wanted to look at what they could ensure all children learned how to enjoy healthy eating. This was especially important to them because obesity is one of the issues that affects children in their nursery. The level of deprivation that many of the children live with in their local community makes eating healthily and avoiding obesity more challenging.

Another motivation for taking part in the research was their awareness of legislation, and at that time the obesity plan (Department of Health and Social Care, 2020) had been launched. Karen and Nicola realised that they had a responsibility to work with parents and practitioners to put the aims of the plan into practice. Interestingly, Karen makes the comment that having legislation helps them to explain to staff and parents why it’s important to make changes.

Thinking about your responses to Step 2, it is likely that you may have other, or different, motivations to identify ways that you can support children to make healthy choices and improve their health. However, you may find that selecting an appropriate focus for a healthy promotion activity can improve children’s health in other areas.

The following section explains how Step 3 can help to identify the main aims of a selected health intervention, as well as the secondary, less obvious ones.