What is Healthy Tots?

Information on becoming a Healthy Tots setting

Healthy Tots is a health promotion programme offered to early years settings in Leicestershire. Our free programme helps early years setting to enhance and showcase their activities and efforts into providing a healthy environment for their children, parents and staff. The programme aims to provide support to establish a 'healthy culture' within early years settings empowering staff, children and parents with a view to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities.

The programme has been developed by the Public Health team at Leicestershire County Council using a whole setting approach to support settings with their requirements for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework and OFSTED.

There are lots of benefits of becoming a Healthy Tots setting such as:

• Ongoing individual and tailored support
• Free training to improve the skills within your team across a variety of health topics for infant wellbeing
• Resources on physical activity, emotional health and wellbeing, oral health and healthy eating to support your practice delivery within the setting
• Healthy Tots certificate and licensed use of branding for two years
• Healthy Tots award pack including Healthy Tots poster, rosette and email signature
• Feature on the Healthy Tots website and promotion on the closed Facebook group

The aim of the Healthy Tots Programme

To provide support to establish a 'healthy culture' within early years settings empowering staff, children and parents with a view to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities.

To achieve this we will:

• Develop and deliver an evidence based Healthy Tots programme across Leicestershire, utilising local data sets to make informed decisions. ​
• Develop and support staff understanding of early years health and wellbeing. ​
• Provide early years staff training opportunities to further increase and maintain knowledge within specific health and wellbeing areas.​
• Provide appropriate and tailored support to meet the needs of the early years settings in achieving Healthy Tots status. ​
• Provide regular feedback to inform and empower settings around local health and wellbeing needs.

Healthy Tots is completely free to take part in and will help your setting to further develop your health and wellbeing practices.

Once all the criteria for the programme is successfully met the setting will be awarded Healthy Tots status and given licensed use of the branding for two years, when the setting will need to refresh the Healthy Tots status.

The Healthy Tots team strive to embed Leicestershire County Councils core values in the way we work. Those values consist of:

• Positivity - We find the best way to get things done. We challenge ourselves to deliver high quality services and inspire others to deliver results

• Flexibility - We are adaptable in order to support the needs of the business, working collaboratively and supporting colleagues

• Openness and Transparency - We are honest with the people we work with and serve. We share information and communicate clearly

• Trust & Respect - We empower our staff to take ownership and be accountable for their own performance, actions and decisions. We value diversity and listen to the views of others

The Healthy Tots programme focuses on four core health themes:

• Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, Emotional health and wellbeing and Oral Health

Within each core health theme settings will upload evidence on the following areas:

• Policy Development
• Learning
• Early Years Culture
• Children's Voice
• Support Services
• Staff CPD, Health and Wellbeing

Settings are required to add their evidence for each theme such as copies of newsletters, policies and pictures onto an online portal which is straightforward and easy to use.

If you are interested in taking part in the Healthy Tots programme, complete and submit the form below and someone from the team will be in touch!