Children in context early years and healthy growth

Manchester parents took part in a survey around healthy growth in children between 0 and 5 years of age. The survey examined their access to and uptake of healthy growth services for children and tested their understanding of healthy diet and exercise. The survey revealed that parents are reliant on a small number of services from large range providers and that other services are underused through lack of access and awareness. Parents have an overall good understanding of the requirements for healthy growth in children of this age group. More work needs to be done to explore, better understand and address the barriers parents face in accessing local healthy growth services. The issue of childhood obesity carries a high degree of complexity and an effective response from statutory services requires an understanding and accommodation of this. Healthy growth services need to be effectively monitored to ensure professionalism and that conflicting information is never provided to parents.