An exploration of the statutory Healthy Start vitamin supplementation scheme in North West England



Moonan, May, Maudsley, Gillian, Hanratty, Barbara and Whitehead, Margaret ORCID: 0000-0001-5614-6576
(2022) An exploration of the statutory Healthy Start vitamin supplementation scheme in North West England. BMC Public Health, 22 (1). 392-.

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Abstract

Background Government nutritional welfare support from the English ‘Healthy Start’ scheme is targeted at low-income pregnant women and preschool children, but take-up of its free food vouchers is much better than its free vitamin vouchers. While universal implementation probably requires a more extensive scheme to be cost-effective, the everyday experience of different ways of receiving or facilitating Healthy Start, especially via children’s centres, also requires further evidence. This study therefore aimed to explore (in the context of low take-up levels) perceptions of mothers, health professionals, and commissioners about Healthy Start vitamin and food voucher take-up and compare experiences in a targeted and a universal implementation-area for those vitamins. Methods Informed by quantitative analysis of take-up data, qualitative analysis focused on 42 semi-structured interviews with potentially eligible mothers and healthcare staff (and commissioners), purposively sampled via children’s centres in a similarly deprived universal and a targeted implementation-area of North West England. Results While good food voucher take-up appeared to relate to clear presentation, messaging, practicality, and monetary (albeit low) value, poor vitamin take-up appeared to relate to overcomplicated procedures and overreliance on underfunded centres, organizational goodwill, and families’ resilience. Conclusion Higher ‘universal’ vitamin take-up may well have reflected fewer barriers when it became everyone’s business to be vitamin-aware. Substantive Healthy Start reform in England (not just cosmetic tinkering) is long overdue. Our study highlights that ‘policy, politics, and problem’ should be aligned to reach considerable unmet need.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Child-preschool, England Healthy Start, Food subsidy, Food voucher, Health inequalities, Mothers, Nutrition, Poverty, Universal and targeted services, Vitamins
Divisions: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 07 Apr 2022 14:07
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 21:05
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-12704-0
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3152380