<section id="sec1" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"><p id="p0010" style="color: rgb(46, 46, 46); font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, STIXGeneral, &quot;Cambria Math&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Microsoft Sans Serif&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;, &quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Good food and nutrition in the early years are key to ensuring health in later years</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. However, as with an increasing number of countries globally</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">, poor nutrition among young children is a serious public health problem in England where, for example, more than one in five children entering the first year of school are living either overweight or obese</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. And most young children now spend a considerable amount of time in some form of formal early years childcare settings (EYS) such as nurseries or childminders</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">, with many consuming most of their daily nutritional requirements within the setting. Parents&nbsp; have a key collaborative role in ensuring a healthy start for children</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. It is therefore important for creating environments that enable partnerships between parents (or other carers) and earlier years childcare professionals, focused on good food and nutrition, to support healthy early life</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">.</span></p><p id="p0015" style="color: rgb(46, 46, 46); font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, STIXGeneral, &quot;Cambria Math&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Microsoft Sans Serif&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;, &quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">In England, parental involvement&nbsp; is a core aim in the Early Years Foundation Stage which means (EYFS) Framework, to which all registered EYS are mandated</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. Related guidance for EYS on involving parents accompanies the Framework, ranging from providing one-to-one daily communication updates with parents via a key worker; which are for organizing practitioner/parent/family workshops; promoting parents as volunteers for learning activities; and inviting parents as governors or steering group members</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. This is further underpinned by UK policies to support the partnership through integrated working between local authorities, health services, and EYS</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. Moreover, parental involvement as ‘partners’, working with practitioners in early years settings to support learning and development, is acknowledged in the EYS literature</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">&nbsp;and considered particularly important for promoting healthy eating</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">.</span></p><p id="p0020" style="color: rgb(46, 46, 46); font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, STIXGeneral, &quot;Cambria Math&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Microsoft Sans Serif&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;, &quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">However, the evidence on the effectiveness of parental involvement mainly stems from studies in school contexts (four years and older). It indicates us that involving parents leads to better learning, attainment, and health outcomes</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">). That's why there is a need to strengthen the limited evidence available on parents' experience of ‘being involved’ ‘participating’ or ‘engaged’ in their child's food and nutrition in EYS, or of their perception of their roles and responsibility in this</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. according to existing studies report that barriers and tensions exist on both sides, with parents feeling patronized by EYS staff ‘educating’ them, or viewing EYS staff as ‘too busy to engage in conversations on food; and EYS staff being unsure of how to communicate about good nutrition without offending parents, and viewing parents as an obstacle to healthy eating by continuing to supply their child with unhealthy snacks and food options.</span><img src="/media/django-summernote/2022-11-03/869496ad-401b-44cd-9644-1c214d7af0b6.png" style="width: 100%;"></p><section id="sec1.1" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"><p id="p0025" style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><font color="#2e2e2e" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size: 14px;">There is no clear definition of parental involvement in early years childcare and education, as it incorporates several behaviors and practices. Though many of the existing theories and models of parental involvement relate to mainstream school settings and educational outcomes,</span></font><span style="color: rgb(46, 46, 46); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">&nbsp;we draw upon two theoretical models with particular relevance to our study and age group of interest.</span></p><p id="p0030" style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><font color="#2e2e2e" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The first is Goodall and Montgomery's parental involvement and engagement model, which offers insight into relationships between parents and schools. The model describes this as a continuum, from parents as passive receivers of information to active ‘partners’ in their child's learning</span></font><span style="color: rgb(46, 46, 46); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. Thus, to visualize variation across levels of involvement and satisfaction with food and nutrition at their child's EYS, an adaptation of Goodall and Montgomery's model is used to assist in the analysis of the findings, particularly on the level of reported agency in decisions about food, and collaboration or partnership relationship between the parent and EYS.</span></p><p id="p0035" style="color: rgb(46, 46, 46); font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, STIXGeneral, &quot;Cambria Math&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Microsoft Sans Serif&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;, &quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">The second model of interest is Epstein's parent-school partnership model across the school, family, and wider community. This focuses on all aspects of children's learning and education and identifies six different types of parental involvement: parenting, volunteering, communicating, learning at home, decision-making within the setting, and collaborating with the local community</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. Developed to assist educators to develop school and family partnership programs, this model has relevance for EYS (0–5 years), especially as the rhetoric of ‘parents as partners in early years learning and development is present in recent policy literature in the&nbsp;</span><span id="gs9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">UK</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">, and because the early years' sector is supported to encourage greater parental involvement through practitioner training as well as with materials and guidance for parents</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. Whilst much of this is focused on the child's educational development, the importance of physical, as well as social and emotional development is recognized. The Epstein model is applied to assist in reflecting upon the findings of our study and formulating policy and practice implications in the Discussion section.</span></p><p id="p0040" style="color: rgb(46, 46, 46); font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, STIXGeneral, &quot;Cambria Math&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Microsoft Sans Serif&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;, &quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">This paper reports the views and experiences of parents on food provision and practices in their child's early years setting, exploring the nature of, barriers to, and their involvement in this.</span><img src="/media/django-summernote/2022-11-03/58b4ca87-4e7f-4272-ae20-5897998da087.jpeg" style="width: 100%;"></p></section></section><section id="sec2" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(46, 46, 46);"><h2 id="sectitle0030" class="u-h3 u-margin-l-top u-margin-xs-bottom" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(80, 80, 80); margin-top: 32px !important; margin-bottom: 8px !important; line-height: 1.333 !important;"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Some Methods:</b></span></font></h2><p id="p0045" style="font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, STIXGeneral, &quot;Cambria Math&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Microsoft Sans Serif&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;, &quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">The research forms part of a larger study of food provision in early years settings, including a stakeholder analysis, which is reported separately</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 59 parents and carers of children in EYS in England. EYS are defined here as nurseries or childminders caring for children under five years and registered with the Office for Standards in Education,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/childrens-services" title="Learn more about Children's Services from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages" class="topic-link" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-decoration-color: rgb(46, 46, 46); color: rgb(46, 46, 46); word-break: break-word; text-underline-offset: 1px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Children's Services</span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">&nbsp;and Skills (Ofsted) Early Years Register. The interview set out to explore parents' drivers for choice of EYS, including the extent to which food practices and healthy eating played a part, how involved, or engaged parents were able or wanted to be in this, and how satisfied they were with the food and food practices within their EYS.</span></span></p><p id="p0050" style="font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, STIXGeneral, &quot;Cambria Math&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Microsoft Sans Serif&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;, &quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Social researchers at Kantar Public, abiding by the Market Research Society Code of Conduct and data protection legislation, were commissioned to recruit participants and conduct interviews. The reason for outsourcing the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/recruitment" title="Learn more about recruitment from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages" class="topic-link" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-decoration-color: rgb(46, 46, 46); color: rgb(46, 46, 46); word-break: break-word; text-underline-offset: 1px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">recruitment</span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">&nbsp;and interviewing was related to the COVID-19 pandemic in England, including accompanying lockdown restrictions, necessitating additional support, which Kantar Public provided by carrying out one-to-one telephone interviews with a sample of parents of children in early years settings across England. Kantar Public had the experience, resources, and capacity to recruit and carry out the interviews within the allocated timeframe, as much of the preliminary work had been undertaken. The authors worked closely with Kantar Public by providing the selection criteria, drafting the structured topic guides, and preparing interviewer briefing notes. Participants were purposefully selected to include a range of geographical areas in England and socio-economic indicators. All had one or more children currently attending an EYS for at least part of the week. Informed consent for participation was obtained by Kantar Public before the interview, which included consent for sharing interview audiotapes and transcriptions with the authors. Interviews were conducted between the 15th of May the June 10, 2020, and lasted between 20 and 52&nbsp;​min. Participants were provided with a small payment as compensation for their time and contribution.</span></p><p id="p0055" style="font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, STIXGeneral, &quot;Cambria Math&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Microsoft Sans Serif&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;, &quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Interviews were coded and analyzed thematically using the Framework approach</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. Following transcription, the authors thoroughly familiarized themselves with the data by reading and re-reading the transcripts, in conjunction with accompanying audio recordings, and by making annotations about initial thoughts. This stage was important as the authors were not present at interviews, though there was an extensive liaison, at all stages of fieldwork, between the authors and the Kantar team, for clarifying any misunderstandings in transcriptions, and making corrections where indicated. Five transcripts were randomly selected and independently open-coded by the three authors. The authors then met to discuss and agree on a set of categories and codes, as an initial coding framework, which could be applied to subsequent transcripts. This initial framework was subsequently applied to a further two transcripts and, following further meetings and refinement, a coding framework comprising four categories and their refined codes and descriptors was agreed upon. This framework was then applied to all subsequent transcripts and charted onto framework matrices, whereby the coded data for each case (or participant) was summarized on a matrix using NVivo Version 12</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">, enabling the identification and refinement of key themes. The data were interpreted by identifying links between sub-groups and codes.</span></p></section><section id="sec3" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(46, 46, 46); font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, STIXGeneral, &quot;Cambria Math&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Microsoft Sans Serif&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;, &quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;, serif; font-size: 18px;"><h2 id="sectitle0035" class="u-h3 u-margin-l-top u-margin-xs-bottom" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(80, 80, 80); margin-top: 32px !important; margin-bottom: 8px !important; font-size: 1.2rem !important; line-height: 1.333 !important;"><br></h2></section>