Exploration of food provision challenges across English nurseries: results from a nationally representative cross-sectional study

Early years' settings play a central role in ensuring children's diets are healthy and they develop good eating habits. There is limited evidence on the barriers and challenges that nurseries face in providing healthy food. To address this, the authors analysed data from a cross-sectional survey of food provision and practices in nurseries across England between October–November 2021. More than 90% of nurseries reported experiencing at least one challenge, most commonly the cost of healthy food, and the lack of time, facilities, and trained staff to prepare healthy food. Some 87% had unmet training needs. The biggest barriers to training were the direct and indirect costs; training barriers were reported to have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurseries that provide food have been financially impacted by the introduction of the 30-hour free childcare policy, needing to increase costs either for childcare or meals. The findings indicate that additional funding is needed to support early years' settings to cover the costs of providing healthy food, as well as the hiring and training of staff with the skills needed to prepare healthy food. Finally, the financial impact of the 30-hour free childcare policy on food provision needs to be reviewed.