Healthy Early Years London: Year One Evaluation Report
“A strong public health system leaves no one behind, least of all our youngest generation. Healthy Early Years London (HEYL) has demonstrated remarkable progress in holistically addressing some of the city’s most pressing health challenges among children from all walks of life, providing them with a healthy start. HEYL remains a model intervention across the 70 urban centers that comprise the Partnership for Healthy Cities, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the World Health Organization and Vital Strategies.”
- Dr. Kelly Henning, Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Year 1 Evaluation Report finalised in December 2019 shows the positive impact the award is having across London, and the importance of working in partnership with boroughs and settings. The evaluation looked at a wide range of evidence to assess the contribution the programme is making to improving health, wellbeing and child development and to reducing health inequalities for under-fives. The report also reflects on some of the challenges in reaching these objectives, concluding with recommendations for the GLA, boroughs and early years settings.
Background
The Mayor’s Healthy Early Years London (HEYL) awards programme is targeted at London’s 13,000+ early years settings with the aim of tackling health inequalities across the city at the earliest opportunity in a child’s life. Following extensive development and piloting, HEYL was launched by the Mayor in October 2018. By the end of its first year, 32 London boroughs were involved in HEYL, and over 1,500 settings had registered to take part.
About this evaluation
The Evaluation was undertaken by Cavill Associates including: Dr Nick Cavill, Mike Parker, Professor Harry Rutter and Jo Foster.
This report describes a process evaluation of the first year of HEYL’s operation. The evaluation aimed to assess the contribution that the programme makes to improving health, wellbeing and child development and to reducing health inequalities among children, aged under five, in early years settings (including childminders). The evaluation makes recommendations for improvements to the ongoing programme.
The evaluation combined surveys of stakeholders and early years settings; one-to-one interviews and focus groups; ethnographic visits to settings; analysis of existing routine data.
Need a document on this page in an accessible format?
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of a PDF or other document on this page in a more accessible format, please get in touch via our online form and tell us which format you need.
It will also help us if you tell us which assistive technology you use. We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.