HENRY Healthy Families

Increasing numbers of children are living with overweight and obesity and these are large and growing public health issues.

In the UK, 9.2% of children are already living with overweight or obesity by the time they enter their reception year of primary school, and this figure rises to 22.7% of children leaving primary school after Year 6. (NCMP National Child Measurement Programme).

A programme which establishes healthy habits around food and exercise in the early years was key, since we know that children who are overweight in the early years are more likely to become obese or overweight adolescents and adults.

• Support parents / carers of young children to improve their healthy eating habits and nutrition; anticipating that those who completed HENRY programmes would demonstrate improvements in effective parenting, increased consumption of fruit and vegetables, reduced consumption of high fat/sugar foods and improvements in healthy family eating behaviours (e.g. eating together, not snacking, not eating in front of the TV).
• Contribute in the longer term to reductions in the number of overweight/obese children in the Better Start Bradford area at age 2, 5 and 11.

• 79% of enrollees went on to participate (group and 1-1 programmes) which is a very high conversion rate. This suggests that the project worked hard to engage every family and that participants valued the project.
• The data is consistent and suggests an effectiveness evaluation to consider whether BiBBS children whose parent attended HENRY had significantly lower body mass index at age 2 or 5 compared to others not attending. This evaluation will be available in 2028.
• Having a choice of how to access the Healthy Families Programme worked well for families and enabled those with barriers to groups or daytime sessions to have a 1:1, an evening or online programme.
• Facilitators who speak a variety of community languages benefitted families and enabled the programme to be delivered in Urdu with translated resources.
• Parents attending one offer were informed about another to encourage follow on and learning.
• WhatsApp groups for individual programmes added value to parents’ and carers’ experience, helping build relationships and support for each other.
• 345 practitioners were trained in Core Skills, Healthy Start in Childcare or as Group Facilitators.
• The varied training offer has enabled much of the Bradford workforce to be trained in core messaging, or to deliver the programme. Regular practice development sessions for all staff have ensured fidelity to the programme.
• 7 primary schools partnered to deliver Healthy Families which has helped to embed the HENRY approach.
• Parent Champions helped recruit families at events and supported individual parents / carers to attend and / or complete paperwork.
• Evaluation suggests that continued support for childcare settings could be beneficial for health in children’s wider environments.
• A Start for Life contract for Preparation for Parenthood enabled the project to have an element of district-wide delivery until March 2025.

*This section includes information from both the evaluation report/s and project