FAQs

A Healthy Tots setting is one that:

1. Promotes the importance of healthy eating, emotional health and well-being, physical activity and oral health.
2. Recognises the importance of investing in health and wellbeing in early years to encourage healthy choices and behaviours from early childhood
3. Uses a whole setting approach benefitting the children, staff, management, parents/carers/families and the wider community.
4. Creates an ethos of health and wellbeing improvement embedded across the early years setting.
5. Develops staff confidence in health promotion

Along with written descriptions, settings can upload a variety of different evidence to meet the criteria points such as:

• Policies

• Leaflets

• Supervision records (anonymise where possible)

• Children's observations (anonymise where possible)

• Parent feedback sheets

• Setting questionnaires

• Screenshots of social media posts
• Copies of training certifications of staff
• Pictures of noticeboards with key health and well being information on

Settings can also upload photographs however where photographs are used, please ensure that you have all relevant consent in place – settings are welcome to blur or cover children's faces if needed.

Once all criteria has been uploaded, assessed and passed, Healthy Tots status is valid for 2 years. However, we encourage all settings to ensure that the standards required to earn the status are reviewed regularly and keep their information up to date.

Settings will be set up with an online portfolio which they can work through the criteria and upload information/evidence to the system - which is straightforward and easy to use.

Click here for a guide on how to upload evidence.

There is no cost to the setting at all to take part in the Healthy Tots programme.

We would usually expect settings to complete their evidence within 12 months of registering and our team will be able to offer support and guidance throughout this simple process.

However we appreciate that settings are extremely busy and may choose to focus on Healthy Tots at a particular time of the year. The team are here to support you and therefore please get in touch with us to see if there is anything we can do to help.

No, you can still use all the evidence you have collated (as long as it still is relevant and up to date) to meet the criteria. Settings will need to register for an account so that you can access the new CRM portal-then you can start uploading all your evidence and gain Healthy Tots status.

No-the training is there to give you extra resources and knowledge! However settings are required to complete a form of Oral Health training to evidence you have sound understanding of dental hygiene and oral health in the early years.

If you are keen to become a Healthy Tots setting but are worried about uploading evidence, then please speak to one of the team who can help you to do this.