More than 90% of three- and four-year-olds in the UK attend early years settings such as nurseries and childminders, yet these places have almost no formal health policies to prevent illness or reduce inequalities. This matters because health gaps—in oral decay, excess weight, mental wellbeing, and infectious diseases—are visible from very young ages. The UK invests heavily in child health through primary care programmes like breastfeeding support and immunisation, but those efforts stop at the nursery gate. Early years settings lack the kind of structured health guidance that primary schools have, and there is almost no research on what policies might actually work in these environments. The EARLY study will co-produce a larger research programme by bringing together parents, nursery owners, policymakers, and public health experts. The team will build a network of 80 parents and 60 early years settings from deprived and minoritised ethnic communities, interview up to 24 policymakers and 12 nursery managers, and run focus groups with parents and commissioners. Two co-design workshops will then shape the questions and methods for the future programme grant. If successful, this work could lead to evidence-based health policies in early years settings—potentially improving nutrition, physical activity, infection control, and mental health support for hundreds of thousands of young children before they start school.
View original technical description
Development work question: To co-produce a Programme Grant for Applied Research (PGfAR) that will create evidence to improve health and health protection policy and practice in UK-based Early Years Setting. Background: Prevention and early years are both top priorities for the UK Government. Investment in child health is an investment in lifelong health. Inequalities are apparent from young ages (e.g. oral decay, excess weight, mental wellbeing and infectious diseases). UK universal child health programmes support breastfeeding, dental checks, safeguarding and immunisation through primary health services. Over 90% of 3-4 year olds (and a substantial proportion of under 3 year olds) attend a range of EYS. However, in contrast to primary schools, there is a lack of health policy in EYS to prevent ill health and tackle inequalities. There is limited research evidence on the effectiveness of policies to improve or protect health in EYS and few qualitative UK studies exploring health policies in EYS. Aim and objectives: To co-produce a PGfAR that will create evidence for health and health protection policy and practice in UK-based EYS?. The co-production will involve parents, Early Years Settings (EYS) owners and managers, policy makers, public health and Early Years experts, regulators and academics. The objectives are to: 1) create a UK EYS Health Research PPIE Network; 2) understand the context, drivers, motivations and barriers for EYS health policies; 3) identify the priorities of UK stakeholders and the public to improve health in EYS; and 4) co-design the research questions and methods for the PGfAR. Development work plan: Three Expert Advisory Groups (parents; EYS staff; academics, practice and policy leads) will be formed. WP1. Early Years Health Research PPIE Network Development: we will expand our growing network of parents and EYS to involve 80 parents and 60 EYS from minoritised ethnic communities and deprived areas of the UK by collaborating with community organisations. Network members will have the opportunity to be involved in expert advisory groups and the work packages. WP2. Qualitative study: we will undertake online, structured, rapid interviews with up to 24 UK policy makers (education, mental health, physical activity, oral health, food and nutrition and infection/immunisation); four regulators; and 12 EYS owners and managers. We will undertake focus groups with parents (purposively recruiting from the network to ensure ethnic and socioeconomic diversity) (8 groups) and public health commissioners (1 group). Questions will inform WP3 and will cover priorities, motivations, history, context, opportunities, barriers, including ethnicity, migrant and refugee status. WP3. PGfAR Co-design: two online, half-day, co-design workshops with up to 44 participants to codesign the focus, research questions and methods for the PGfAR. Timelines for delivery: Month(M) 1-6 develop network and form Expert Advisory Groups; M1-12 qualitative study; M10-12 PGfAR co-design; M11-15 dissemination, PGfAR writing and submission. Anticipated impact and dissemination: Combined with a future PGfAR this research could be highly impactful given the current lack of EYS health policy. Dissemination outputs will include presentations, a publication, policy briefings and summaries.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know