Nourishing the Future: making healthy food accessible for every child

All of us – and especially children – need a balanced diet, which includes enjoying treats now and again. However, too large a share of children’s every day diets are coming from less nutritious foods, leaving them deficient in the core nutrients needed for healthy development. This comes at a time when children in the UK are becoming shorter than their European peers and rates of malnutrition and obesity are the highest among comparable countries.

We know that for parents and carers, a healthy diet is a priority, and many are making big sacrifices to make sure their children have the best food they possibly can. However, they are coming up against high food costs, confusing advice and marketing, and a food system that often works against them, making it easier and more affordable to buy much less nutritious food. For many families, this is made even more difficult by inequalities in society that both make it harder to buy, cook, and eat good food, and result in unfair differences in health outcomes.

What we've found

This report draws on insight from children, young people, parents and Barnardo’s practitioners, and experts in child health and nutrition. They told us:

• Children, young people and their parents want to eat healthier diets, but are struggling to do so.
• Healthy food is out of reach or out of budget for many families and young people in the UK, particularly those living in poverty and/or on Universal Credit.
• There are huge and unfair structural inequalities in the food system that make it harder for certain groups of children and families to buy, prepare and eat nutritious food.
• Advice on how to shop for and prepare healthier food often does not work for people without money, time, space or appliances, including young people living alone and young adult care leavers aged 18-25.
• Government-approved nutritional guidance is not seen as relevant or helpful by many young people and families, particularly those from African, Asian and Caribbean backgrounds, and those who are disabled, neurodivergent or have specific dietary requirements. It is focused too much on the dangers of ‘bad’ food and not enough on the positives of healthy food.
• Whilst over-reliance on food that is highly processed, or high in sugar, fat and salt, risks harming all children’s health, the impact is greatest on poorer children and those facing structural inequalities, who often struggle to afford and access healthier foods, which are more expensive, less accessible and less convenient to prepare.
• The support currently available – including from government – is not doing enough to support families and young people to overcome barriers such as cost and accessibility, that are preventing them from eating more nutritious food.
• Lack of access to healthy food in childhood can have significant long-term consequences for both physical and mental health, leading to shame, loneliness and stigma.

What needs to happen next?

Action on accessible, nutritious food for children and young people cannot wait. We welcome the UK government’s commitments to improving children’s health, and the anticipated Child Health Action Plan, as well as the wider Child Poverty Strategy.

However, the government’s ambition of achieving the “healthiest generation of children and young people” will not be realised unless these initiatives include urgent action to make sure all children, young people and families can eat well, building on the great work already underway.

Governments in each UK nation should:

Food at home

• Work with children, young people, parents and carers to update nutrition advice used in food education (such as the NHS Eatwell Guide) to make sure it provides relevant advice to all children and families, whatever their budget, time, dietary requirements or cultural background.
• Increase the value of shopping vouchers given to families with young children living on the lowest budgets, so that all young children across the UK can eat the minimum nutrients they need for healthy child development. We also need to raise awareness of these schemes (Healthy Start in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Best Start Food in Scotland) to make sure they reach all those who are entitled to support.

Food in schools

• Increase the amount of nutritious food children eat by making school lunches free for all primary school children, with an immediate extension to all families receiving Universal Credit, alongside automatic enrolment for all children who are eligible, and speeding up rollout wherever this is already happening.
• Strengthen the rules on the quality of foods schools can provide (School Food Standards) to reflect up to date dietary evidence; and make sure that all breakfast clubs and school lunches meet these standards.

Food in communities

• Support communities to develop local solutions to accessing nutritious food, through facilitating and funding Local Food Partnerships between voluntary organisations, food retailers and local government.
• Support and fund health workers to refer children and families needing help with their diet, so they can access non-clinical services such as to community kitchens and food pantries, cooking classes and support provided by local food partnerships.
• Fund family centres in all communities to be a ‘one stop shop’ for family-friendly food advice including breastfeeding support, cooking skills and culturally informed food education.

Food in society

• Use the proceeds of any future taxes on sugar or salt in foods to reduce food insecurity, by funding the other recommendations advocated in this report. This would reduce health inequalities and make sure higher taxes do not fall on those least able to afford them.
• Develop a Children and Young People’s Food Strategy, co-produced with children and young people, to fully address the scale of the challenges facing young people’s diet including structural issues with the food system that make it hard for children to eat well. This should guard against a ‘one size fits all’ approach and reflect the differences in how children live, including related to their age, gender, ethnic and cultural background, abilities and disabilities, family structure, and neurodivergence. It should set clear targets, actions for government departments and local agencies, and measure progress against clear outcomes.