Minister for Children, Huw Irranca-Davies is today launching new guidance to help childcare settings support young children to eat well and learn about the food they eat. This builds on current good practice across the sector. 

Childcare practitioners and settings are in an ideal position to help develop  children’s eating habits  – since children attending childcare settings from a young age may be receiving up to 90% of their food and nutritional intake there, if they attend full day care. They may also be receiving snacks and drinks in a range of settings that contribute to their nutritional intakes, which can impact on their overall diet. 

Encouraging good eating habits and trying a variety of nutritious foods can help to establish lifelong eating habits. Children will often try new foods when in a social setting with their peers.

The guidance forms part of range of Welsh Government initiatives that will contribute to supporting positive dietary change through the early years and ensuring children reach and maintain a healthy weight as they grow and develop. 

The Child Measurement Programme for 2017 shows that around a quarter of children (27.4%) aged 4-5years old are classified as overweight / obese in Wales

The new standards and guidance includes accompanying menus and recipes for settings. It aims to support settings to meet the childcare regulations for food and drink, but to also help parents in being more aware of what settings offer their children and taking messages home on the healthy choices they have made.

The guidance sets out the up to date, evidenced based food standards and how to implement them in practice, so that childcare settings can:

• serve snacks that are nutritious, with little or no sugar and salt;
• provide only healthy and safe drinks that are protective to teeth, milk and water; 
• serve a range of tasty, nutritious meals to help develop good eating habits;
• ensure portion sizes are appropriate for the age of children. 

Launching the new guidance, Minister for Children, Huw Irranca-Davies said:

“We want all children from all backgrounds to have the best start in life. Ensuring children develop good eating habits early in their lives is absolutely crucial if they are to grow up to be a healthy weight. 

“The early years can have a positive influence on food preferences as a toddler begins to have a decisive say in the foods they choose to eat. The evidence shows that eating habits adopted in early years will be taken forward into later childhood and adult life. 

“So the food they are offered in childcare settings is so important. That’s why we’re launching the new guidance today – which will help those who work in childcare to ensure the children they care for eat healthy, nutritious food.”

Health Secretary, Vaughan Gething said:

“Eating nutritious food is essential for children in their early years. This helps promote healthy growth and development, to attain and maintain a healthy weight, protect teeth from decay and sets the foundations for their future health and wellbeing. 

“Nutrition guidelines are only one element of this Government’s work to prevent and reduce levels of obesity. Through the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017, we are developing a 10 year Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales strategy to put in place the building blocks that will help us halt and ultimately reduce levels of obesity and increase the proportion of people who are a healthy weight.”

The consultation is seeking views on draft statutory guidance that would see a more consistent approach when school governing bodies set school uniform and appearance policy.

Under the new guidance, governing bodies would be expected to consider ways of keeping down the costs of school uniform. These could include stipulating basic items and colours but not styles; this would mean that items could be bought from multiple retail chains at reasonable prices and not just from one supplier.

Schools would also be encouraged to consider whether school logos are strictly necessary and, if so, whether they should be restricted to just one item of uniform or provided free of charge and sewed, ironed or stuck onto items of clothing.

Governing bodies will also be asked to consider whether there is a need for different uniforms for summer and winter.

Equality forms a key part of the guidance, with governing bodies required to think about issues such as discrimination on grounds of race or religious belief, disability and sex and gender identity – with the latter taking into account gender-neutral school uniform items and how governing bodies can meet the needs of pupils undergoing gender reassignment.

The Education Secretary launched the draft guidance for consultation today at Ysgol Glan Morfa in Splott, Cardiff. The school has a scheme to help reduce the cost of school uniforms for parents, with both new and second-hand uniform items that are either given free to parents or for a nominal charge.

Kirsty Williams said:

“Families face many different costs when it comes to school uniform and I want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make uniform more affordable and more available.

“In the summer, I launched our PDG-Access scheme which is already helping parents with the cost of not just school uniform, but equipment, sports kits and kit for activities outside of school.

“By putting in place statutory guidance, my expectation is that governing bodies will have a much more consistent approach to issues such as cost and also show a much greater degree of flexibility when it comes to very hot or very cold weather.

“But this also goes much further than just practical considerations; this is about equality and pupils’ wellbeing. I don’t want our learners, for whatever reason, to feel uncomfortable about wearing their uniform. That’s why it’s so important that as many young people as possible take part in this consultation and tell us their views”

The consultation can be completed here: https://beta.gov.wales/guidance-school-governing-bodies-school-uniform-and-appearance-policies

This is £7m more than in 2018/19 and the fifth consecutive year funding to support health professional education and training has increased.  

Health and social care services rely on more than 300 professions and job roles which combine to support patient care. The funding will be used for education and training places to support a range of roles including:

• Medical doctors in Emergency medicine, trauma and orthopaedics and radiology; 
• Nurses, midwives and health visitors;
• Paramedics, physiotherapists, radiographers, speech and language therapists and occupational health therapists;
• Physician Associates; 

Following the publication of A Healthier Wales, the Welsh Government’s long-term plan for health and social care in Wales, funding will be also be invested to ensure the workforce of the future is able to deal with the challenges set out in the plan.

Increased funding will be available to support the advanced practice / extended skills and health care support worker development, and funding will be directed to areas where the health system is able to derive maximum benefit.

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said: 

“The NHS has more people working in it than at any time in its history, all aimed at prevention and care for members of society across every community in Wales. 

“I am proud of our record on investing in education and training to support and sustain the health workforce across Wales. This record level of funding will support the highest ever number of training opportunities in Wales for health professionals.

“The establishment of Health Education and Improvement Wales provides greater opportunities to consider both current and future workforce challenges and how education and training can support the changes required to address these challenges. Working with key partners HEIW will provide leadership in this area.”

The Economy Secretary was speaking ahead of a Welsh Government hosted Low Carbon Intelligent Mobility event bringing internationally recognised manufacturers including Aston Martin Lagonda, Toyota, Renault, Peugeot and Nissan together with academics, public service providers and specialists at Hensol Castle. 
The event will see Welsh Government outline its policies to support decarbonisation, focussing on the automotive supply chain changes and opportunities as cars go from the internal combustion engine to electric and hydrogen power sources.

Economy Secretary Ken Skates said:

“Skills, innovation and sustainability are all things I, as Economy Secretary, have put front and centre of my economic policy over recent years, most explicitly in last year’s Economic Action Plan.

“It’s this focus, alongside the expertise and vision of companies such as Riversimple, Calsonic and Hemmels here in Wales which means we are in a fantastic position to maximise on the enormous opportunities presented by low carbon vehicles, which are unquestionably the future of travel. 

“And the prospects do not begin and end simply in manufacturing the cars of tomorrow, but through exploring and finessing the innovative technology and supply chain opportunities with interested parties and partners who all stand to benefit.

“We at Welsh Government are absolutely determined to facilitate this and, through events such as this linking likeminded business with academia, supply chains and decision makers, I hope to unearth further opportunities for growth and collaboration, creating wealth, jobs and wellbeing in the process.

“Today we have a line-up of electric and hydrogen powered vehicles from Nissan, Peugeot, Renault and Toyota. Coupled with the highly anticipated fully electric RapidE and Lagonda vehicles from Aston Martin being made here in Wales and the already established hydrogen offering from Riversimple, and others, there is every reason to believe Low Carbon Intelligent Mobility is on the brink of something quite special, with Wales leading the charge.”

Cardiff is the latest Welsh city or town to sign up to the Refill campaign. Participating businesses sign up to the Refill app and put a sticker in their window to show passers-by they are welcome to stop by and fill up their water bottle for free.

A ‘Refill Cardiff’ launch will take place at Cardiff Central Library today.  Following the event, a group of volunteers will visit businesses in the city to encourage more to sign up to the campaign.

The Welsh Government is supporting the national roll-out of the scheme by City-To-Sea, with over 600 refill stations already signed up across Wales and more joining every week. The Welsh Government has also funded a Welsh language version of the Refill app.

Cardiff University is a Refill ‘champion’. The University’s Water Research Institute, which is researching ‘plastics in freshwaters’, is aiming to get all accessible water stations on campus signed up to the app and encouraging other organisations across the city to join the scheme. Cardiff Council has also added public buildings to the app, such as libraries or Hub buildings.

There are currently 86 Refill stations in the Cardiff area. Refill is helping tap water be more widely available in public spaces like transport hubs, shopping centres and public buildings.

Hannah Blythyn said:

”Making drinking water more available is a really simple way to cut down on single-use plastics and is much better for the environment.

Earlier this year I announced my ambition to see Wales become the world’s first ‘Refill Nation’ and make asking for a water refill a social norm, so it’s really good to see our capital city join the scheme.”

Hannah Osman, Refill Wales Coordinator, said:

“We are so excited to see Refill Cardiff join the Refill movement and making a real difference by reducing reliance on single-use plastics. Every time we refill a re-usable bottle we save on our own money and the planet’s resources, and all those individual refills add up to a huge impact.

It’s great to see so many local businesses supporting Refill Cardiff by signing up to provide free refills.”

Professor Isabelle Durance, Director of Cardiff University’s Water Research Institute, said: 

“We are very excited to be championing the Refill movement in Cardiff. The University is committed to reducing its energy, water and plastic use. Simple but effective schemes like Refill are a great way to achieve this, but perhaps as importantly, to make us more aware of the need to better manage our natural resources.

In addition to promoting the campaign, we are providing water refill stations in several of our campus buildings, empowering staff, students and the whole community to care for our environment, for future generations.”

Councillor Michael Michael, Cabinet Member responsible for Clean Streets, Recycling and the Environment at Cardiff Council said:

“Now that the app has been launched, residents and visitors in Cardiff will be able to see exactly where they will be able to refill their plastic bottles in the city on their smart phone. The Council is committed to reducing the use of single use plastics and we will continue to work with our partners to continue to expand the scheme.”