Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the nutritional value of meals provided to children in early years settings.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to age five. The framework can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.

The framework requires that where children are provided with meals, snacks and drinks, they must be healthy, balanced and nutritious. This is set out at Section 3.38, which also refers to example menus and guidance designed specifically for early years settings. These can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/example-menus-for-early-years-settings-in-england.

The example menus guidance has been promoted to early years settings in various ways, such as via correspondence to the sector and links to the guidance being published on the help for early years providers online platform. The platform can be accessed here: https://help-for-early-years-providers.education.gov.uk/.