The Healthy Child Project is an initiative run by Northamptonshire County Council and NHFT.

Designed to tackle the growing issue of childhood obesity in Northamptonshire. It is a pilot project that started in October 2014, with 84 Primary Schools across Northamptonshire currently participating in the pilot. A team of 4 Healthy Child Advisors provides tailored 1:1 support for schools including assessments and action plans to help them improve Health & Wellbeing for children within their school. 

Our work focuses on 3 key areas:

Healthy Eating

Physical Activity (including PE & Sport)

Mental Health & Wellbeing

Benefits of the Project:

• Free support & advise on health, physical activity & wellbeing for the school (through the allocated Healthy Child Advisor)
• Links school up with local partners to deliver healthy lifestyle activities within the school (e.g. Sports, School Nursing & Weight Management)
• Provides access to a wide range of services & free resources
• Helps children perform better through schemes of wellbeing & behaviour management
• Develops skills of staff team (Continuous Person Development opportunities)
• Helps schools to apply for additional funds and grants available from local businesses
• Help with OFSTED preparation, meeting guidelines and standards for Health & Wellbeing

The University of Northampton have been commissioned to carry out a research project alongside the initiative to gather evidence to track its outcomes and impact. 

Benefits of the Research:

• Helps to determine effectiveness of initiative in improving health and wellbeing of children and young people in Northamptonshire
• Demonstrates the effort schools are making in effectively tackling childhood obesity within their community
• Helps identify gaps in health service provision locally and countywide
• Gathers feedback from professionals, school staff, children & parents about healthy lifestyle initiatives in schools
• Collects information about children’s eating patterns and activity levels to help develop interventions for targeted support

The following link will take you to an article and TV slot on the Healthy Child project which aired on Anglia TV in February 2015.

http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2015-02-03/council-launches-kids-keep-fit-programme/ .

We are now looking to roll out this project to more primary schools in 2015/16. If your school is interested in participating or if you simply want to find out more, please email

HealthyChild@northamptonshire.gov.uk and our team of Healthy Child Advisors will be in touch!