How involved are parents in their child's early years setting's food decisions and practices?

Good food and nutrition in the early years are key to ensuring health in later years. However, as with an increasing number of countries globally, poor nutrition among young children is a serious public health problem in England where, for example, more than one in five children entering the first year of school are living either overweight or obese. And most young children now spend a considerable amount of time in some form of formal early years childcare settings (EYS) such as nurseries or childminders, with many consuming most of their daily nutritional requirements within the setting. Parents  have a key collaborative role in ensuring a healthy start for children. It is therefore important for creating environments that enable partnerships between parents (or other carers) and earlier years childcare professionals, focused on good food and nutrition, to support healthy early life.

In England, parental involvement  is a core aim in the Early Years Foundation Stage which means (EYFS) Framework, to which all registered EYS are mandated. Related guidance for EYS on involving parents accompanies the Framework, ranging from providing one-to-one daily communication updates with parents via a key worker; which are for organizing practitioner/parent/family workshops; promoting parents as volunteers for learning activities; and inviting parents as governors or steering group members. This is further underpinned by UK policies to support the partnership through integrated working between local authorities, health services, and EYS. Moreover, parental involvement as ‘partners’, working with practitioners in early years settings to support learning and development, is acknowledged in the EYS literature and considered particularly important for promoting healthy eating.

However, the evidence on the effectiveness of parental involvement mainly stems from studies in school contexts (four years and older). It indicates us that involving parents leads to better learning, attainment, and health outcomes). That's why there is a need to strengthen the limited evidence available on parents' experience of ‘being involved’ ‘participating’ or ‘engaged’ in their child's food and nutrition in EYS, or of their perception of their roles and responsibility in this. according to existing studies report that barriers and tensions exist on both sides, with parents feeling patronized by EYS staff ‘educating’ them, or viewing EYS staff as ‘too busy to engage in conversations on food; and EYS staff being unsure of how to communicate about good nutrition without offending parents, and viewing parents as an obstacle to healthy eating by continuing to supply their child with unhealthy snacks and food options.

Some Methods:

The research forms part of a larger study of food provision in early years settings, including a stakeholder analysis, which is reported separately. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 59 parents and carers of children in EYS in England. EYS are defined here as nurseries or childminders caring for children under five years and registered with the Office for Standards in Education, ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages" class="topic-link" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-decoration-color: rgb(46, 46, 46); color: rgb(46, 46, 46); word-break: break-word; text-underline-offset: 1px;">Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) Early Years Register. The interview set out to explore parents' drivers for choice of EYS, including the extent to which food practices and healthy eating played a part, how involved, or engaged parents were able or wanted to be in this, and how satisfied they were with the food and food practices within their EYS.

Social researchers at Kantar Public, abiding by the Market Research Society Code of Conduct and data protection legislation, were commissioned to recruit participants and conduct interviews. The reason for outsourcing the ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages" class="topic-link" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-decoration-color: rgb(46, 46, 46); color: rgb(46, 46, 46); word-break: break-word; text-underline-offset: 1px;">recruitment and interviewing was related to the COVID-19 pandemic in England, including accompanying lockdown restrictions, necessitating additional support, which Kantar Public provided by carrying out one-to-one telephone interviews with a sample of parents of children in early years settings across England. Kantar Public had the experience, resources, and capacity to recruit and carry out the interviews within the allocated timeframe, as much of the preliminary work had been undertaken. The authors worked closely with Kantar Public by providing the selection criteria, drafting the structured topic guides, and preparing interviewer briefing notes. Participants were purposefully selected to include a range of geographical areas in England and socio-economic indicators. All had one or more children currently attending an EYS for at least part of the week. Informed consent for participation was obtained by Kantar Public before the interview, which included consent for sharing interview audiotapes and transcriptions with the authors. Interviews were conducted between the 15th of May the June 10, 2020, and lasted between 20 and 52 ​min. Participants were provided with a small payment as compensation for their time and contribution.

Interviews were coded and analyzed thematically using the Framework approach. Following transcription, the authors thoroughly familiarized themselves with the data by reading and re-reading the transcripts, in conjunction with accompanying audio recordings, and by making annotations about initial thoughts. This stage was important as the authors were not present at interviews, though there was an extensive liaison, at all stages of fieldwork, between the authors and the Kantar team, for clarifying any misunderstandings in transcriptions, and making corrections where indicated. Five transcripts were randomly selected and independently open-coded by the three authors. The authors then met to discuss and agree on a set of categories and codes, as an initial coding framework, which could be applied to subsequent transcripts. This initial framework was subsequently applied to a further two transcripts and, following further meetings and refinement, a coding framework comprising four categories and their refined codes and descriptors was agreed upon. This framework was then applied to all subsequent transcripts and charted onto framework matrices, whereby the coded data for each case (or participant) was summarized on a matrix using NVivo Version 12, enabling the identification and refinement of key themes. The data were interpreted by identifying links between sub-groups and codes.