Getting children eating well for life means starting early. Whether you run a nursery, work in a children’s centre, look after children as a childminder or if you oversee early years education in a local authority, Action for Children are here to help you deliver great food for under-fives.

Our Eat Better, Start Better guidance and supporting material have been developed to help early years providers and practitioners to meet the Early Years Foundation Stage welfare requirement for the provision of healthy, balanced and nutritious food and drink.

This new guidance, updated in 2017 reflects the government’s dietary recommendations for children aged 6 months to 5 years and sets out the food and drink guidelines for early years settings in England. Following the advice in this new guidance when providing food and drink will help you to meet the nutritional requirements of young children in your care.

The new guidance and associated menus contains new information relevant to the youngest children along with the up to date standards.

Public Health England has launched their new example menus to help early years professionals plan healthy meals for children in their care. These menus can be found here.

The government has also produced accompanying infographics to go with the early years menus which can be downloaded below.