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For the Healthy Start Scheme to benefit children who are most in need, it must be extended to all families with No Recourse to Public Funds (NFPR). Linking Healthy Start – in the main – to families receiving means-tested benefits excludes those who are unable to access these benefits, and so excludes those who live in vastly greater straitened circumstances. No child should be excluded, from the much-needed nutrition provided by Healthy Start. Daily, we see families who are struggling to meet their children’s nutritional needs and would be financially eligible for Healthy Start but are excluded by their or their children’s immigration status.

The current eligibility criteria results in the barring of many children, amongst the most economically disadvantaged in the UK, from Healthy Start. They are thus put at further risk of suffering a nutritional deficit with long term impact on their health and wellbeing.

Therefore, the Healthy Start scheme, in its current form, is incompatible with its statutory purpose as it fails to provide a ‘nutritional safety net’ for a considerable number of families. Extending eligibility would also better meet the UK’s ratified commitments to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In particular, Article 24 recognises the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health. The obligation to provide all children with equal access to their rights, without discrimination and irrespective of their nationality or immigration status, is outlined in Article 2 of the Convention.

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