Co-design of a sustainable and acceptable implementation intervention to maximise the impact of whole school approaches to food within primary schools
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Health Science
Abstract
Background: Children consume a third of their food at school, providing an opportunity to promote healthy diets and reduce levels of obesity. The World Health Organisation and UK government recommend that schools adopt approaches across the whole school day that support children to make healthy food choices, offering consistency in the quality of foods provided, eating culture, education about diet, and use of food to learn. In reality, uptake is poor, partly due to lack of direction on how to use such an approach, but also because schools work in highly complex environments with multiple competing demands, and influences from wider factors like national policy, cultural beliefs, population characteristics, costs and catering requirements.
Methods: We will design a practical and acceptable intervention to help primary schools adopt whole school approaches to food. This will be done in partnership with key people (stakeholders) including head teachers, teachers, staff, children, parents, school governors, local businesses, and local and national government, by:
1. Hosting stakeholders workshops in Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle and Belfast to discuss factors influencing what children eat during the school day. We will ask people to consider potential influencing factors at school (e.g. space needed to provide lunch), in the community (e.g. cultural influences on eating practices) and from wider society (e.g. government policies on free-school meals). We will encourage discussion on how these factors relate to each other and use this information to build a picture called a 'systems map', providing a richer understanding of the local and wider influences on children's food choice. The map may also help to identify parts of the system most likely to respond to intervention and whether adding an intervention in one part (e.g. a packed lunch policy) is likely to cause positive or negative adaptations in others (food eaten at home).
2. Inviting stakeholders to take part in designing an intervention. This will involve consideration of the factors identified in our system maps. Based on existing discussion with people who work in schools, we do not expect the intervention to involve excess paperwork or expense for schools. Instead, it might include visual resources (like websites or videos) to support schools to include children in decision making, and to improve the food environment. It could also consider changes to catering decisions or specific activities such as embedding catering staff more across the school, growing food in schools, teaching with food, avoiding using food as reward/or punishment, and consistent food messages. To ensure the intervention supports schools without excessive burden, acceptability and potential barriers will be a key consideration during development. Importantly, we will focus on developing an intervention that has the best chance of supporting those in greatest need.
3. Seeking feedback about our draft intervention ideas from our wider stakeholder group. We will share the draft with stakeholders and ask them to rate its acceptability and how easily they can be used by schools. A form will also be used for stakeholders to consider which parts of the intervention they feel can be applied across all schools and which may be less transferable. We will then make any required improvements before fully developing the intervention and its resources.
Impact and dissemination: The intervention has the potential to improve dietary options extending beyond the school day. It is important that it is evaluated so that, if successful, it can become standard practice. We will therefore engage with key decision makers and advocates, including Public Health England, School Food Matters (a national organisation supporting schools) and the Department of Education. We will share our findings widely, including with schools, children and parents, and will develop plans to test its impact on food choice.
Methods: We will design a practical and acceptable intervention to help primary schools adopt whole school approaches to food. This will be done in partnership with key people (stakeholders) including head teachers, teachers, staff, children, parents, school governors, local businesses, and local and national government, by:
1. Hosting stakeholders workshops in Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle and Belfast to discuss factors influencing what children eat during the school day. We will ask people to consider potential influencing factors at school (e.g. space needed to provide lunch), in the community (e.g. cultural influences on eating practices) and from wider society (e.g. government policies on free-school meals). We will encourage discussion on how these factors relate to each other and use this information to build a picture called a 'systems map', providing a richer understanding of the local and wider influences on children's food choice. The map may also help to identify parts of the system most likely to respond to intervention and whether adding an intervention in one part (e.g. a packed lunch policy) is likely to cause positive or negative adaptations in others (food eaten at home).
2. Inviting stakeholders to take part in designing an intervention. This will involve consideration of the factors identified in our system maps. Based on existing discussion with people who work in schools, we do not expect the intervention to involve excess paperwork or expense for schools. Instead, it might include visual resources (like websites or videos) to support schools to include children in decision making, and to improve the food environment. It could also consider changes to catering decisions or specific activities such as embedding catering staff more across the school, growing food in schools, teaching with food, avoiding using food as reward/or punishment, and consistent food messages. To ensure the intervention supports schools without excessive burden, acceptability and potential barriers will be a key consideration during development. Importantly, we will focus on developing an intervention that has the best chance of supporting those in greatest need.
3. Seeking feedback about our draft intervention ideas from our wider stakeholder group. We will share the draft with stakeholders and ask them to rate its acceptability and how easily they can be used by schools. A form will also be used for stakeholders to consider which parts of the intervention they feel can be applied across all schools and which may be less transferable. We will then make any required improvements before fully developing the intervention and its resources.
Impact and dissemination: The intervention has the potential to improve dietary options extending beyond the school day. It is important that it is evaluated so that, if successful, it can become standard practice. We will therefore engage with key decision makers and advocates, including Public Health England, School Food Matters (a national organisation supporting schools) and the Department of Education. We will share our findings widely, including with schools, children and parents, and will develop plans to test its impact on food choice.
Technical Summary
A third of primary school children are overweight or obese in the UK and nutrition recommendations are consistently not met. Inequalities in these areas in the UK are the highest amongst all OECD countries and this disparity increases between 5-11 years. Primary schools provide an opportunity to support children to make healthy food choices, with 30% of a child's diet consumed at school. This is also an excellent setting to form behaviours and social/cultural norms; providing an opportunity to improve diet within and outside of school. WHO and UK government advocate 'whole school approaches to food', promoting consistency in food availability, culture, policy and education. However, implementation is poor against the backdrop of multiple competing priorities. Hence, we plan to better understand school food systems in order to co-design an implementation intervention to support them to implement whole school approaches to food via 4 work packages(WP): WP1: Engagement and recruitment of key stakeholders in Leeds, Bradford, Belfast and Newcastle (teachers, staff, caterers, governors, children, parents, local businesses and local authority representatives); WP2: Workshops with stakeholders to develop system maps highlighting factors influencing food choice and uptake of whole school approaches to foods; WP3: Co-design of a sustainable, equitable and acceptable intervention, including compilation of a draft (extended) intervention logic model and theory of change, which incorporates consideration of context, external influences (i.e. wider system), and unintended outcomes (e.g. inequitable impact); WP4: Seeking feedback on the draft intervention from stakeholders, considering implementation within a broader socio-ecological system and transferability for optimal spread and impact. Throughout the project, we will engage with partners in local authorities, PHE, DfE and School Food Matters to develop a dissemination strategy to optimise impact and enable a future evaluation
Planned Impact
Primary schools and the children and families they serve will benefit most from this research. In the UK, children consistently fail to meet nutritional recommendations and levels of obesity continue to rise. And, those living in the highest levels of deprivation suffer most. The World Health Organisation and the UK government recommend that schools adopt approaches across the whole school day to support children to make healthy choices as one solution to this problem; however, schools are complex systems and there are many other competing priorities that mean that this is often not achieved.
We have already engaged with stakeholders, including schools, teachers, children and governors in the preparation of this bid; all of whom agreed that this was a priority area. Importantly, head teachers supported the notion of 'whole school approaches to food', though they recognised barriers and told us that further support was required. These PPI activities also enabled us to explore the acceptability of our methodological approach so that we are able to demonstrate impact through ensuring 'Design, conduct and analysis robust and appropriate' as a key area within the NIHR Adding Value in Research framework. For example, we tested WP2 methods with 10 children, who demonstrated active participation and gave suggestions about how to gain trust of children.
Our research will continue to engage with our PPI groups in addition to working with a wider stakeholder group of teachers, school staff, caterers, school governors, children, families, local businesses and local authorities to co-design an intervention to support schools to adopt 'whole school approaches to food'. This will consider not only the foods that are provided, but also the school ethos about food across the day. This has the potential to improve dietary choice in children which extends beyond the school day (supporting positive decisions outside of school too).
Partners including, Departments for Education (DfE and DE Ireland) and School Food Matters and local authorities support the work and will help develop the intervention and publicise its findings using a dissemination strategy that is developed in partnership with these agencies. We also have a confirmed Advisory group, including representation from Public Health England, CRN public health, Fuse Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, School of Public Health Research and expertise from implementation science (Foy).
By bringing together our partners, advisors and other key stakeholders to consider the complexity of schools and acceptability of adopting whole school approaches to food, the research has potential to contribute to increased awareness of the importance of the school food environment by public and professionals. It will also prompt activities and investment by our partners/advisors and will support future research activity to test its impact on diet and obesity in children.
We have already engaged with stakeholders, including schools, teachers, children and governors in the preparation of this bid; all of whom agreed that this was a priority area. Importantly, head teachers supported the notion of 'whole school approaches to food', though they recognised barriers and told us that further support was required. These PPI activities also enabled us to explore the acceptability of our methodological approach so that we are able to demonstrate impact through ensuring 'Design, conduct and analysis robust and appropriate' as a key area within the NIHR Adding Value in Research framework. For example, we tested WP2 methods with 10 children, who demonstrated active participation and gave suggestions about how to gain trust of children.
Our research will continue to engage with our PPI groups in addition to working with a wider stakeholder group of teachers, school staff, caterers, school governors, children, families, local businesses and local authorities to co-design an intervention to support schools to adopt 'whole school approaches to food'. This will consider not only the foods that are provided, but also the school ethos about food across the day. This has the potential to improve dietary choice in children which extends beyond the school day (supporting positive decisions outside of school too).
Partners including, Departments for Education (DfE and DE Ireland) and School Food Matters and local authorities support the work and will help develop the intervention and publicise its findings using a dissemination strategy that is developed in partnership with these agencies. We also have a confirmed Advisory group, including representation from Public Health England, CRN public health, Fuse Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, School of Public Health Research and expertise from implementation science (Foy).
By bringing together our partners, advisors and other key stakeholders to consider the complexity of schools and acceptability of adopting whole school approaches to food, the research has potential to contribute to increased awareness of the importance of the school food environment by public and professionals. It will also prompt activities and investment by our partners/advisors and will support future research activity to test its impact on diet and obesity in children.
Organisations
- University of York (Lead Research Organisation)
- PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND (Collaboration)
- NEWCASTLE CITY COUNCIL (Collaboration)
- Bradford Metropolitan District Council (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Newcastle University (Collaboration)
- Leeds City Council (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST (Collaboration)
- DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- School Food Matters (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR) (Collaboration)
- Public Health Agency (PHA) (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF YORK (Collaboration)
- Public Health Agency (Project Partner)
- Department of Education (Project Partner)
- Born in Bradford Office (Project Partner)
- Newcastle City Council (Project Partner)
Publications
Bryant M
(2023)
Understanding school food systems to support the development and implementation of food based policies and interventions
in International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity
Stephanie Hartgen-Walker
(2023)
Child food insecurity and Free School Meals
Description | Adopt a School |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Department for Education |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Department for Education |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | EFRA inquiry on Fairness in the Food Supply Chain |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
Description | Healthy Schools working group |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Healthy Weight Steering Group (York Council) |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Leeds Council |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Living Well School Food offer |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
Impact | The CONNECTS-Food study (CO-desigNed systems iNtervEntion impaCTing whole school approaches to Food) aims to design a practical intervention to help primary schools deliver existing policies which promote whole school approaches to food. I have worked closely with Bradford Council Living Well team to develop resources and signposting for schools to support whole school approaches to food. The implementation intervention under development (MRC PHIND funded) will be included when available. |
URL | https://schools.mylivingwell.co.uk/physical-health/physical-activity-and-health-diet/ |
Description | Living well Bradford - supporting their school food offer |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Newham Public Health |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | School use of CONNECTS-Food Resource |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
Impact | Accessed by 244 unique users and 9 schools using the self review tool (that have provided school postcode) |
URL | http://connects-food.com |
Description | Tower Hamlets and Southwark council - supporting their school food offer |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | York public health |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Internally distributed funding call |
Amount | £3,480 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of York |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2022 |
End | 07/2023 |
Description | BIHR |
Organisation | Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Provided expertise for nutrition and diet related projects; supported other researchers/students in projects and funding applications; led and contributed towards funding applications(on site 1 day per week). |
Collaborator Contribution | Wider collaboration with multi-disciplinary teams, including those in Bradford local authority, but also with teams across Yorkshire and in London, including ARC and PRP ActEarly and NIHR Clean air zone study (the latter two, I am a co-applicant) |
Impact | Shahid Islam, Neil Small, Maria Bryant, Tiffany Yang, Anna Cronin de Chavez, Fiona Saville, Josie Dickerson. (2018) Addressing obesity in Roma communities: a community readiness approach. International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare. Mahoney S, Sahota P, Barber S and Bryant M. (2018) Dietary intake in the early years and its relationship to BMI in a bi-ethnic group: the Born in Bradford 1000 study. Public Health Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980018000654 Yang T, Sahota P, Pickett K and Bryant M. (2018) Impact of food insecurity on overweight and dietary intake: exploration of White British and Pakistani families in the Born in Bradford cohort. Public Health Nutrition. 17(1):48 24 Farrar D, Simmonds M, Bryant M, Sheldon T, Tufftnell D, Golder Su, Lawlor D. (2017) Treatments for gestational diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis BMJ Open 2017;7:e015557. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015557 Daley A, Pallan M, Clifford S, Jolly K, Bryant M, Adab P. (2017) Are babies conceived during Ramadan born smaller and sooner than babies conceived at other times of the year? A Born in Bradford Cohort study. J Epidemiology and Community Health. Farrar D, Simmons M, Bryant M, Sheldon T, Tuffnell D, Golding S, Lawlor D. (2017) Risk factor screening to identify women requiring oral glucose tolerance testing to diagnose gestational diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis and analysis of two pregnancy cohorts. PLOS One. Farrar D, Simmons M, Bryant M, Sheldon T, Tuffnell D, Golding S, Lawlor D (2016). Hyperglycaemia and risk of adverse perinatal outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 354 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i4694. Dickerson J, Bird PK, McEachan RR, Pickett KE, Wailblinger DM, Uphoff E, Mason D, Bryant M, Bywater T, Bowyer-Crane C, Sahota P, Small N, Howell M, Thornton G, Astin M, Lawlor DA and Wright J (2016). Born in Bradford's Better Start: an experimental birth cohort study to evaluate the impact of early life interventions. BMC Public Health. 2016 Aug 4;15:711. doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-3318-0 McEachan RC, Santorelli G, Bryant M, Sahota P, Farrar D, Small NA, Akhtar S, Sargent J, Barber SE, Taylor NJ, Richardson G, Farrin AJ, Bhopal R, Bingham D, Ahern SE and Wright J (2016) The HAPPY (Healthy and Active Parenting Programmme for early Years) feasibility randomised control trial: Acceptability and feasibility of an intervention to reduce infant obesity. BMC Public Health MS: 1029803493178153. 16:211 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-016-2861-z. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-016-2861-z Wright J, Fairley L, McEachan R, Bryant, M, Petherick E, Sahota P, Santorelli G, Barber S, Lawlor DA, Taylor N, Bhopal R, Cameron N, West J, Hill A, Summerbell C, Farrin AJ, Ball H, Small N, Farrar D. et al (2016). Development and evaluation of an intervention for the prevention of childhood obesity in a multi-ethnic population: the Born in Bradford applied research programme. NIHR Journals Library. 4:2. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3310/pgfar04060 Bryant M, LeCroy M, Sahota P, Cai J, Stevens J. (2016) Validity and reliability of the semi-quantitative self-report Home Food Availability Inventory Checklist (HFAI-C) in White and South Asian populations. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2016 May 4;13:56. doi: 10.1186/s12966-016-0381-y. Sahota P, Lisa A Gatenby, Darren C Greenwood, Bryant M, Sian Robinson, John Wright (2015). Ethnic Differences in dietary intake at age 12 and 18 months: The Born in Bradford 1000 Study. Public Health Nutrition doi:10.1017/S1368980015000932. Fairley L, Santorelli G, Lawlor DA, Bryant M, Bhopal R, Petherick ES, Sahota P, Greenwood DC, Hill AJ, Cameron N, Ball HL, Barber S and Wright J (2015). The relationship between early life modifiable risk factors for childhood obesity, ethnicity and body mass index at age 3 years: findings from the Born in Bradford birth cohort study. BMC Obesity 2:9 doi:10.1186/s40608-015-0037-5 |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | Bradford Living Well Board |
Organisation | Bradford Metropolitan District Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I have become the lead for Living Well Schools: Food (https://schools.mylivingwell.co.uk/). This is a partnership sharing best practice and providing evidenced based approaches. In addition to providing overall evaluation support for the whole Living Well project, (mylivingwell.co.uk) I have helped to develop an evaluation plan for Living Well Schools. My involvement includes attendance at monthly meetings in addition to ad hoc advisory meetings/brain storming sessions. I have also established a relationship with the lead for Food within the council and we meet informally at least once a month. My contribution with this extends beyond Living Well with this latter partnership as I also advise on any relevant food or obesity related queries (including commissioning decisions). |
Collaborator Contribution | The partnership allows me and my team to consider applying feasible approaches in food based interventions and initiatives. Rather than taking an academic approach, we work with the council to explore areas of priority, consider relevant approaches and work out types of evaluation that meets the needs of the timeline and capacity within the council. This partnership provides an excellent platform for my team and I to ensure that we are working collaboratively in this way. It also provides a means to test interventions in practice. For example, through Bradford Living Well, we are planning to implement and test the MRC PHIND CONNECTS-Food intervention. |
Impact | Development of the School offer for Living Well Schools - https://schools.mylivingwell.co.uk/ |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | CONNECTS-Food Partnership Board |
Organisation | School Food Matters |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Updating evidence on school food, including understanding school food systems. Contribution to advocacy through evidence provision |
Collaborator Contribution | Chair for the CONNECTS-Food partnership board (Stephanie Slater). Co-design agenda, leading discussion, sharing insights with external networks, updating on emerging policies. Meetings attended approximately every 3 months - providing oversight and expertise. The group is Chaired by School Food Matters and all partners are asked to provide an update of emerging evidence / policy and any other relevant initatives that can be incorporated into the CONNECTS-Food intervention. The partnership board have also agreed to promote CONNECTS-Food to increase impact. |
Impact | Includes representation from school leadership, School Food Matters (Chair), the Childrens Food Campaign, 4 local authorities, DfE and PHE. |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | CONNECTS-Food partnership board. School Food Matters |
Organisation | University of York |
Department | Department of Health Sciences |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Convened a partnership board to discuss whole school approaches to food and how we can support schools and campaigners to advocate the use of whole school approaches to food via intervention development. |
Collaborator Contribution | Meetings attended approximately every 3 months - providing oversight and expertise. The group is Chaired by School Food Matters and all partners are asked to provide an update of emerging evidence / policy and any other relevant initatives that can be incorporated into the CONNECTS-Food intervention. The partnership board have also agreed to promote CONNECTS-Food to increase impact. |
Impact | Includes representation from school leadership, School Food Matters (Chair), the Childrens Food Campaign, 4 local authorities, DfE and PHE. |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Department For Education |
Organisation | Department for Education |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Providing updates on evidence relating to school food Supporting development of resources / templates for schools for monitoring Membership of School Food matters advisory group |
Collaborator Contribution | Membership of CONNECTS-Food partnership board. Updating emerging policies Providing oversight and considering ways to link resources and templates |
Impact | Co-design of CONNECTS-Food free resource for schools to deliver whole school approaches to food Draft monitoring template for school food |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | GENIUS |
Organisation | Queen's University Belfast |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Building relationships and networking to expand school food research. Introducing new investigators and learning more about methodological approaches. |
Collaborator Contribution | Supporting evaluation of the CONNECTS-Food study - for implementation to Bradford Council Living Well School Food offer |
Impact | Grant writing - submission to NIHR PHR (food insecurity) School food system mapping - used to support intervention development and links with other projects, including ActEarly and Fix our Food Abstract submission to EASO - School Food system 2022 |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | HSC Public Health Agency |
Organisation | Public Health Agency (PHA) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Sharing resources and reports, including written and oral (at CONNECTS-Food partnership board) on evidence and research findings related to school food |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise and oversight of research project Updates on emerging policy |
Impact | CONNECTS-Food free resource for schools to deliver whole school approaches to food |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Leeds City Council |
Organisation | Leeds City Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Initiation of a new network / working partnership to engage the council in research |
Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration on award delivery, including identification and contribution of stakeholders |
Impact | CONNECTS-Food resource for schools (connects-food.com) Presentations (assocations, OHID, local authorities) Papers Part of offer within Living Well Schools |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Local authority partnership with Bradford |
Organisation | Bradford Metropolitan District Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Contributing to overall evaluation strategy and evaluation proposals in relation to food. This has included supporting members of staff (building capacity) in research methods and delivery, evaluation sessions for specific initiatives, protocol review and expertise within specific committees (Living Well Bradford, Living Well Schools, Bradford Food Strategy). This partnership also includes adhoc advice and a frequent (at least monthly) catch up with the senior public health consultant. I've also provided expertise to support the delivery of the Bradford based pilot test for monitoring the School Food Standards (including developing support to schools who do not meet standards). |
Collaborator Contribution | The partnership has allowed us to identify policy relevant research questions and supported the development of evaluations that have the greatest potential to deliver impact. Partners from the council attend our research group meetings (e.g. ActEarly Food and Healthy Weight theme, CONNECTS-Food meetings, Community Food Assets meetings) and provide up to date insights into current and/or future policies. |
Impact | Co-design of the CONNECTS-Food (connects-food.com) Bradford Food Strategy (still in draft at https://letstalk.bradford.gov.uk/the-bradford-district-food-strategy-consultation) Living well schools (https://schools.mylivingwell.co.uk/) |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Newcastle City Council |
Organisation | Newcastle City Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Initiation of a new network / working partnership to engage the council in research |
Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration on award delivery, including identification and contribution of stakeholders |
Impact | Co-design of the CONNECTS-Food resource for schools |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Newcastle University |
Organisation | Newcastle University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Development of a programme of work to produce resources for schools to support whole school approaches to food. Invitation to working group and grant application Networking and capacity building. Funding to deliver research |
Collaborator Contribution | Co-design of research Employment and supervision of research staff Network links for school food stakeholders and experts Contribution to output development Expertise in school food |
Impact | Paper accepted by Internation Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity (no doi yet, therefore not listed) Launch webinar for CONNECTS-Food for local authorities Presentations (OHID, European Association for the Study of Obesity, UK Association for the Study of Obesity) |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Public Health England |
Organisation | Public Health England |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Sharing resources and reports, including written and oral (at CONNECTS-Food partnership board) on evidence and research findings related to school food |
Collaborator Contribution | Membership of CONNECTS-Food partnership board. Provide expertise and oversight and policy updates. |
Impact | CONNECTS-Food free resource for schools to deliver whole school approaches to food |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Queens University Belfast |
Organisation | Queen's University Belfast |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Development of a programme of work to produce resources for schools to support whole school approaches to food. Invitation to working group and grant application Networking and capacity building Funding to deliver research Support for other networks (GENIUS UKPRP) |
Collaborator Contribution | Co-design of research Employment and supervision of research staff Network links for school food stakeholders and experts Contribution to output development Expertise in school food |
Impact | Paper accepted by Internation Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity (no doi yet, therefore not listed) Launch webinar for CONNECTS-Food for local authorities Presentations (OHID, European Association for the Study of Obesity, UK Association for the Study of Obesity) |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | University of Leeds |
Organisation | University of Leeds |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Maria |
Collaborator Contribution | Maria |
Impact | Maria |
Start Year | 2022 |
Title | CONNECTS-Food |
Description | CONNECTS-Food.com is a free resource for primary schools to deliver whole school approaches to food. It was co-designed using funding from the MRC PHIND study, with additional support from stakeholders in Bradford, Newcastle, Belfast and Leeds. It is a linked ActEarly project |
Type | Preventative Intervention - Behavioural risk modification |
Current Stage Of Development | Small-scale adoption |
Year Development Stage Completed | 2022 |
Development Status | Under active development/distribution |
Impact | Further funding has been awarded (internal Univery of York) to test the implementation of the resource (currently underway in 2023). We are in discussion with the Department for Education to link their school monitoring pages to the resource. |
URL | http://connects-food.com |
Description | 6th UK and Ireland Implementation Research Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Oral presentation: Wendy Burton presenting: Acceptability of the CONNECTS-Food resource: supporting primary schools in implementing a systems-based whole school approach to food |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://arc-sl.nihr.ac.uk/events-training/events-training/6th-uk-and-ireland-implementation-science-... |
Description | CONNECTS-Food launch x 2 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Maria Bryant presenting : CONNECTS-Food resource for primary schools to develop a whole school food policy CONNECTS-Food launch x 2 "soft launch" with partnership board and co-design team followed by meeting with people that could not attend to go through revised version of resource. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | EASO Conference Maastricht |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Bryant M (presenting); Burton W, O'Kane N, Ahern S, Spence S, Baker T, Evans C, Rutter H, Sharif A, Woodside JV . EASO conference presentation Maastricht 4th May 2022-Mapping primary school food systems to enable development of sustainable and feasible system-wide improvements to food provision: The CONNECTS-Food system map. This received an award - Best in European Congress of Obesity. Award - Best in European Congress of Obesity (Maastricht May 2022) 'Community and systems approach to reducing obesity in children' - For CONNECTS-Food oral presentation entitled- 'Mapping Primary School Food Systems to enable the development of sustainable and feasible system wide improvements to food provision: The CONNECTS-Food system map' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | ECO Conference Istanbul |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Maria Bryant was an invited speaker at the ECO conference in Istanbul |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Not just dinners! Food in a school setting-Webinar The Healthier and Resilient Food Systems Network, a sub-group of the Yorkshire and Humber ADPH Healthy Weight, Nutrition and Food Community Of Improvement |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Maria presented |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Online tool to support delivery of 'whole school' approach to food |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Press release: Online tool to support delivery of 'whole school' approach to food |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | School Food Plan Alliance Meeting- Parliament |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Maria presented in Parliament |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Stakeholder workshops - adults |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | We conducted 11 workshops (remotely) with school food stakeholders, including head teachers, teachers, caterers, local authorities, parents, and representatives from charitable organisations to consider factors that influenced child food choice across a school day. This work led to the production of a school food systems map and is currently being used by a co-design team to develop an implementation intervention designed to support schools to deliver whole school approaches to food. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Stakeholder workshops - children |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | We ran eight workshops with children in primary schools in Belfast, Leeds, Bradford, and Newcastle to develop 'journey maps' of a child's school day. This sort to identify opportunities to embed whole school approaches to food and information was used to support discussion in other (adult) stakeholder workshops. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | UKCO 2022 presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Maria Bryant presented "Development of implementation intervention to support schools implement whole school approach to food" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | York Council - Healthy Weight Steering Group |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Maria Bryant presented to York City Council - Healthy Weight Steering Group |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |