Nursery World - MP proposes changes to Healthy Start sign-up process to ensure ‘no baby or infant goes without’

A Labour MP is calling for new powers on Government departments and agencies to ensure that families eligible for the Heathy Start scheme are automatically registered for it.

There are calls to make enrolment to the Healthy Start scheme automatic, PHOTO: NHS

Presenting the Bill to Parliament last week (14 June), Labour MP, Emma Lewell-Buck, said that ‘too many families are missing out’, as uptake across England, Wales and Northern Ireland is a ‘pitiful’ 64 per cent with some areas facing uptake as low as 50 per cent.

She added, ‘It is calculated this equates to over 200,000 of those eligible missing out on £53m worth of nutritious food.’

Almost 30 organisations and 40 MPs signed a letter to MP Steve Barclay, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care ahead of the introduction of the bill, citing that food inflation costs are ‘pushing families to the edge’ with baby formula increasing by 12.5 per cent, whole milk by over 26 per cent and vegetables by nearly 20 per cent.

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