The Healthy Early Years Award (HEYA) offers a unique opportunity for settings to work towards a quality assured programme, helping to improve health and wellbeing for under 5s.
Helping families to make healthier choices remains a national focus. In Southampton, obesity rates are similar to the England average, but these levels are still unacceptably high. Addressing obesity through healthier nutrition and physical activity choices in addition to improving oral health is a priority for the city.
Participating in the award will help you to provide a healthier environment for children in your care. It will help families to make positive choices and provides practical support (and CPD) for early year’s practitioners.
You can find out more about the award and the views of some Southampton settings by watching the Southampton Healthy Early Years Award video below.
Southampton’s HEYA was originally developed in 2009. In 2017 it was redesigned and piloted, to make it more accessible and practical to achieve.
There are six stand-alone awards at three progressive levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Settings begin with bronze awards in Healthy Eating and Physical Activity. Once both have been achieved settings can move on to silver if they wish. At this level there are three awards to choose from: Healthy Eating, Healthy Mouth and Physical Activity. Settings who undertake and complete all three awards will have the opportunity to move on to obtain the HEYA Gold award. All awards are valid for three years and all progression steps must be taken within the 3 year period.
All awards paperwork and guidance are accessible online. Completing a self-assessment form is the main piece of evidence required for the initial bronze level. At silver level, attendance at training is required in addition to submitting all relevant evidence. On this page, you will find the information to undertake each level of the award.
Please note: when submitting awards for assessment, you will only be able to submit a maximum of 5 additional pieces of evidence. The majority of the evidence should be submitted by completion of the self-assessment form.
Please read all flow charts and instructions before starting any of the awards and contact the HEYA team to advise them of your interest.
All correspondence and submissions must be sent to: HEYA@southampton.gov.uk. Submissions will be passed to the relevant assessor who will aim to provide feedback within one month.
“Everyone in the setting is more motivated to take part in physical activities and more aware of time children should be active.”
“It was useful to have lots of advice and guidance for developing the policy.”
“We have shared lots of ideas and healthy eating/physical activities with our Facebook preschool group and had photos and comments in return, which have showed how much the children are enjoying the activities.“
“When other things get in the way it doesn't mean you won't get there and the HEYA team are very supportive and empathetic to the curves and pitfalls we all face day to day!”
“We were OFSTED’ed and the inspector was keen to hear why we had done it and also our plans for the future although not the sole reason we achieved an Outstanding, it definitely helped.”
“We found that our parents often didn’t know what or why we did things and in sharing the policies, activities and progress on the awards it has helped parents understand the vital work we do.”
“Having the example sheets makes it clear what I needed to do and gave me ideas of what to be discussing with staff and parents.”
“I think we were already doing a lot of what is involved in gaining the award but it has helped changed our mind-set when talking with the children about food and exercise. Children often ask to do exercise and talk with each other and us more about how to keep healthy.”
“Parents now have more tools to use e.g. recipes, sugar swap ideas.”
“We were already doing a lot of the criteria for HEYA we just didn’t realise at the time.”
“It has widened parents and family’s eyes about allergies, healthy eating, sugar levels that their children maybe consuming without them necessarily knowing it or what they could put in their children’s lunchboxes as an alternative. There is less ‘Junk’ food and healthier food replacements instead.”
“For the staff team, it has also questioned our own eating habits and what we are consuming for a lunch - are we eating healthily? Are we setting a good example for children? Are we role modelling good choices? etc. Staff are more confident about portion sizes and how much the children should be having.”
“I feel it has a positive impact upon the children as they’ll learn about their bodies whilst taking part in physical exercise and to teach them about why it is important to have regular exercise within our daily lifestyle.”
“The Southampton city HEYA website is very useful. It has all the information that you need to know when completing each award and each area – healthy eating, oral hygiene and physical. It is easy to access to parent/carers look at if they wish. The Facebook page shares some interesting posts too.”
You can hear more views of the award from our providers by watching the Southampton Healthy Early Years Award video:
Why should I consider working towards the HEYA?SHOW
Working towards the HEYA will help you to:
Create a healthier environment for children by meeting standards on good quality nutrition, oral health and physical activity.
Improve outcomes for children through healthy eating, positive oral health and physical activity
Follow a clear structure to meet best practice guidance and advice
Support your staff to increase their own knowledge and awareness of under 5s nutrition, oral health and physical activity.
Role model healthy behaviours and good practice
Provide clear and consistent messages to parents /carers and children on healthy eating, oral health and physical activity to benefit in the home environment
Provide evidence to support the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory requirements and enable reflective practice for self-evaluation, with links to ECERS-R, ITERS-R and FCCERS-R
Build on a whole healthy setting approach.
Complete the Healthy Eating bronze level of the HEYA to progress towards the Healthy Mouth Award.
HEYA achieversSHOW
The following early years and childcare providers hold one or more current awards:
The Bronze Award is designed to be a simple way for settings to start with the award by making changes to their nutrition or physical activity provision through completing a self-assessment form without the need to first attend training. Please ensure that you read through the flowchart and theme standards.
Settings need to consult with the relevant groups (including staff and parents), download the relevant themes and standards and review these in light of their current practice. Once required changes have been identified, the setting should make the necessary changes to their practice.
Following this, the setting needs to complete the self-assessment form and submit, along with the necessary additional evidence, all of which is clearly listed on the flowchart. Depending on the size of the setting and the number of changes required, we anticipate the bronze level to be worked on over a period of a term (although this may be quicker, particularly for settings already meeting the required standards)
To move on to this level, you will have completed both healthy eating and physical activity at Bronze level within the last three years.
The Silver Award involves settings sending 1-2 staff representatives to a 2 ½-hour training session for each aspect of the award: healthy eating and physical activity. Settings are required to cascade the training to other team members. Support and training will be provided in your setting for the Healthy Mouth Award.
Each session is provided free of charge for Southampton providers. Settings are required to produce an action plan to identify and address development areas highlighted at bronze level, or in the self-assessment form or during the training. This would include more challenging aspects of provision, such as the setting’s approach to birthdays and addressing portion sizes for healthy eating, achieving good oral health habits or making changes to identified areas for physical activity.
The setting then works through the identified areas, making the required changes before completing a silver self-assessment form and submitting along with the necessary evidence for assessment by the HEYA team. Please see the flow chart for all evidence required to assess the submission.
Depending on the size of the setting and the number of changes required, it is anticipated that the silver level to be worked on over a period of 1-2 terms (although this may be quicker, particularly for settings already meeting the required standards).
To move on to this level, you will have completed the following within the last three years:
Bronze Mental Health and Wellbeing
Silver Healthy Eating
Silver Physical Activity
Silver Healthy Mouth
By working through all of the awards, settings will have progressively made positive changes impacting on the setting, the practitioners, the parents and families. This helps everyone to make healthier choices and changes for life. Completing the Gold award will enable settings to take this further, really making a measurable difference to families.
Attendance at a relevant training session is required for all Silver awards. This training must be cascaded to your teams in order to successfully pass silver awards.
Training is subsidised and therefore delivered free to Southampton Early Years providers.
Training may be held at Startpoint Sholing or online. The Healthy Mouth training may be delivered in your setting. Anyone currently working at bronze level is also welcome to join a training session.
If you are renewing a silver award, attendance at training will be required again.
Some settings may work through HEYA awards, progressing from bronze through to gold at a steady pace and keeping their HEYA status up to date during this process. However, others may wish to stop at bronze or silver level, meaning that certificates will expire after three years.
If not being superseded by a higher award, in order to keep HEYA status validated, settings will need to renew an award when it expires. This will mean reviewing the work and the self-assessment form and re-submitting.
This is required because over the 3-year period, practice, children families and staff change and it is important to review, reflect and refresh practice and policies to ensure that standards are maintained. This is good practice for all aspects of early years provision.
One of the HEYA team will be in contact if your award is due to expire to discuss options. If you have any queries, don’t hesitate to contact us.
The HEYA teamSHOW
The revised Healthy Early Years Award was developed in 2017 by a number of individuals and organisations including Solent NHS Trust, Annemarie Aburrow RD BSc (Hons) PGDip Expert Dietitian, Southampton Early Years and Childcare Team and Southampton Oral Health Educators. HEYA resources were adapted for the Healthy Mouths theme by Dr Devika Vadher (Clinical Fellow in Dental Public Health) and Dr Jeyanthi John (Consultant in Dental Public Health).
The HEYA quality assurance panel is made up of a selection of representatives from these various organisations.
Are you a school interested in HEYA?SHOW
Reception classes are welcomed and encouraged to participate in the Healthy Early Years Award. We work closely with the Healthy High Five team and your school can work with both schemes. Find out more about Healthy High Five.
My Journey is also working with nurseries and pre-schools in Hampshire to encourage alternatives to car travel on the nursery and school run. By promoting walking and scooting for journeys to your pre-school or nursery, you can help to keep children active and reduce congestion and pollution in the local area. You will find some ideas and activities in the early years section.
Mental health and wellbeingSHOW
We are pleased to announce that in autumn 2022 we have introduced a new bronze award which focuses on wellbeing of children, staff and parents.
Looking after your staff’s health and wellbeing can improve their attendance, productivity and wellbeing, as well as supporting the retention of staff. This is a stand-alone award.
