Mary Glindon MP: How to give a healthier start to babies and toddlers

The government operates the Healthy Start Scheme, originally introduced by my party. This helps eligible women who are more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4 to buy healthy food and milk with a card that is topped up monthly.

The small range of products from some shops include cow’s milk and related infant formula milk, fruit, vegetables, pulses, vitamins during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and vitamin drops for babies and young children.

But only about two-thirds take this up. An estimated 200,000 families are missing out on £68 million worth of nutritious food. The shortfall in North Tyneside amounts to £144,000.

The government knows which families are missing out but has failed to register everyone. This is despite the government’s own 75% target and an uptake of nearly 90% in Scotland.

It’s increasingly vital for some. The cost of living crisis has nearly doubled the number of children living in food poverty. Furthermore, a quarter of households with a child under 4 experienced food insecurity in January.

My fellow North East MP, Emma Lewell-Buck recently proposed a cross-party Bill in the Commons to persuade the government to automatically register those eligible so that no baby or infant goes without.

Emma’s Bill would require the Government to embrace automatic enrolment. The government accepts the principle that it should help give a healthy start to children but foolishly neglects an obvious administrative procedure. It’s time ministers got on with it.

Mary Glindon is Labour MP for North Tyneside