Setting the Table Guidance

Ministerial foreword

High quality Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) supports young children to reach their full potential. Since 2014 we have undertaken one of the most significant reforms to public services in a generation by almost doubling the entitlement to high quality, funded ELC from 600 to 1140 hours per year, for all eligible children. As set out in our Strategic Childcare Plan, we want Scotland to be the best place in the world to grow up in.

We know that healthy eating and physical activity are essential for proper growth and development in childhood, and that healthy eating habits developed in the early years are often carried into adulthood. That is why we have ensured that every child attending a funded session receives a healthy and nutritious meal as part of their ELC day, supporting both improvement in children’s health by tackling health inequalities and our ambition to halve childhood obesity.

Scotland’s ELC providers are in a unique position to support the development of positive eating habits from a very early age, and to help shape these for the future. Setting the Table is developed by experts in child health and nutrition from across Scotland alongside the ELC and catering sectors, and informed by Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition recommendations. It provides nutritional guidance, food standards and practical advice for all providers and for those who cater for early years services in Scotland.

I am grateful to everyone who has put so much work into producing this document and for the collaboration of Public Health Scotland, Food Standards Scotland, Care Inspectorate, Education Scotland, NHS, Early Years Scotland, National Day Nurseries Association, Scottish Childminding Association, Assist FM (representing Local Authority catering leads) and Children & Young People Allergy Network Scotland (CYANS).

Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise

Natalie Don-Innes MSP