The Healthy Child Programme is the key evidence based, universal public health service for improving the health and wellbeing of children, through health and development reviews, health promotion, parenting support, screening and immunisation programmes.<\/p>
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The programme has a strong evidence base, which is set out in Health for All Children (Hall and Elliman, 2006). To ensure the programme continues to promote best practice, Public Health England are leading a rapid review of the evidence base for the Healthy Child Programme for 0 to 5 year olds, which will be published later this year.<\/p>
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<\/strong><\/p> <\/p> Healthy Start is a means-tested, United Kingdom-wide government scheme that offers a nutritional safety net for pregnant women and children under four in low income families by providing them with weekly vouchers to put towards the cost of milk, formula milk, fruit and vegetables, and free vitamin supplements. The delivery costs for this year for Healthy Start throughout the UK (vouchers, vitamins and administration) is expected to be around £85 million, with 90% of vouchers redeemed.<\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> The Department commissioned a formal evaluation of the Healthy Start scheme, published in March 2013. This considered the experiences of Scheme users and the effectiveness of the Scheme at delivering against its stated purpose. The results of this evaluation can be found at:<\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p>