Health and Wellbeing in Your Setting

Food and nutrition for childcare settings: standards, guidelines and menu planning 

Gold Standard Healthy Snack Award

 

Cardiff and Vale Gold Standard Healthy Snack Award is open to day nurseries, Flying Start groups, playgroups, meithrins, childminders and after school clubs. You can achieve the award if healthy snacks and drinks are provided and guidelines on hygiene and the eating environment are met.

 

If a group meets this criteria and has a member of staff trained in nutrition, they can achieve the ‘Gold Plus’ award. 

 

The award is overseen by the Public Health Dietetics Team and supported by a multi-disciplinary implementation group.  The work of the snack award links with the Welsh Government Healthy and Sustainable Pre-School Scheme.

 

Gold Standard Healthy Snack Award

 

Healthy and Sustainable Pre School Scheme

The Healthy and Sustainable Pre School Scheme aims to promote the health of pre-school aged children, their families and carers.   The scheme reaches young children by working through the child care organisations they attend, and aims to encourage positive health behaviours in children from the very earliest age.

Many health habits are established at a young age, making the early-years environment an ideal time to influence a child’s health. Early years practitioners have the potential to make a huge contribution to the health and wellbeing of children in their care, and the Vale of Glamorgan Healthy and Sustainable Pre-school Scheme helps them to do this.

Healthy Pre School Scheme

Healthy Pre School Scheme - Cardiff and Vale UHB

Oral Hygeine

Designed to Smile is the national child oral health improvement programme in Wales. It is funded by the Welsh Government and was launched in 2009. All of the Designed to Smile services and all NHS dental treatments for children are FREE.

Designed to Smile can deliver training sessions to staff, provide resources to promote oral health and hygiene, and can even help find dental services for families that you support!

Contact your local Designed to Smile team

Every Child Wales

Every child in Wales has the right to the very best start in life and to help them along the way, Public Health Wales has launched Every Child Wales.

The website is full of ideas to help you give the children you are caring for a healthy and happy future.

Every Child Wales - Professionals

Health Protection in Children and Young People Settings

 A practical guide for staff on managing cases of infectious diseases in children and young people settings

Environmental Health

If you provide only the following levels of food service as part of your normal business, you may not be required to register as a food business operator.

1. Provision of mains drinking water only.
2. Provision of crockery and cutlery for use by children to eat their own packed lunches.
3. Provision of chilled storage for packed lunches that belong to the children.
4. Occasional assistance to children with cutting up their own food in response to individual need rather than as an established service.
5. Occasional provision of food that is not part of the normal service (e.g. a cake to celebrate a child’s birthday or provision of food where a parent/guardian has been delayed).
6. Operating in the child's own home and serving food that belongs to the child's parent/guardian e.g. nannies or home child carers. 

If you provide any snacks, meals, and/or drinks other than mains drinking water you will need to register with Environmental Health as a Food Business Operator.

Registration and inspection is straight forward, just contact:

Contact One Vale (C1V) 01446 700111

Register a Food Business

Food Standards Agency

Under EU regulations all food businesses need to provide information about allergenic ingredients in food they provide. If you supply food as part of your business then you will need to make available information about any of the 14 major allergens used in any food ingredients. Please note that full ingredients lists are NOT required.

Environmental Health will make a common sense approach to how you are complying with the regulation. The following steps hopefully will help, however please visit the Food Standards Agency (FSA) website to ensure you are up to date.

Allergen guidance for industry

• • Ensure you are aware of the 14 main allergenic ingredients in food. FSA website has online training and posters/leaflets you can print and display, ‘allergies-intolerance’ poster, ‘Allergen-info’ and ‘think allergy’ are particularly good examples.
• • Ensure you obtain and record any dietary or allergy information when a child starts and that you regularly update this as required. For children who have allergies you could complete FSA’s ‘allergy-chef-cards’ to either pop on the fridge to remind you or keep safe in your purse if eating out.
• • You should consider producing either a simple ‘sample’ weekly menu or a scrap book of meals and snacks you are likely to provide. Add a ‘tag line’ ‘Please feel free to ask me about any ingredients used’.
• • Always read the ingredient labels of all the foods you use to ensure it is safe for each child in your care
• • Reiterate the need for allergy and dietary information on your Food Policy which includes a list of the 14 main allergens and the need for parents to keep you up to date.
• • To ensure good hygiene and food safety awareness complete a Vale of Glamorgan Food Safety Training course and adhere to Public Health Wales October 14 guidance.
• • Continue to use the FSA’s ‘Safer food better business for childminders’ toolkit
  • Safer food, better business for childminders

Additional Needs / The Index

The Index is the Vale of Glamorgan’s voluntary register for children and young people with disabilities or additional needs.

If you are a professional, you can sign up to The Index to be kept up to date about services, support and activities across the Vale of Glamorgan.

The Index aims to provide information to families, professionals and organisations through regular emails via The Index eNews as well as newsletters produced twice per year.

A child or young person can be signed up to The Index by a parent, carer or professional if they:

-      Are under 18 years

-      Have a diagnosed disability, are in the process of diagnosis or have additional needs

You can sign a child or young person up via The Index Online Registration Form or you can print off a form.

The Index