Exploring the intersection of food and family intervention policies in England: how are children included?

In England, a rhetoric of supporting ‘troubled families’ through policy interventions mushroomed during the New Labour years of the late 1990s. At this time, early years settings became sites of particular interest in which to implement these policies, seen as places where perceived deficiencies in the household could be addressed. This has led to an overlap of policy domains, predominantly between early years education and family intervention, yet also expanding into other areas. In this context, children’s food policy is seen as an especially fruitful area for intervention, where the aim of ‘improving children’s diets’ often seems to be interlaced with a concern for ‘improving parenting styles’.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in London between 2016 and 2017, this paper explores what happens at the intersection of these different policy domains, examining how particular framings of policy problems – and the solutions developed to address these problems – lead to contradictions and arbitrary results. Linking to wider discussions about the current early childhood education and care (ECEC) landscape in England, the paper also asks to what extent are children’s viewpoints and experiences considered when interventions are developed, and what can be gained when doing so in a meaningful way.