Bromley Children Project are celebrating the success of local early years providers promoting healthy lifestyles from a young age.

The launch of Healthy Early Years in Bromley saw six local Children and Family centres achieve a bronze award for their contribution to getting children off to a healthy start in life.

Though the programme has only been running for a few months, the number of bronze awards in Bromley at 13 contributes significantly to the total throughout London at 27.

It is now hoped that settings will move on to silver and finally gold.

These awards were part of an ongoing pan-London initiative which aims to encourage early years’ and childminders to focus on health and wellbeing to support the achievement, education and happiness of young children.

The celebratory day was attended by early years providers, parents and children who all enjoyed fun events including sporting challenges for the children, musical events, soft play and healthy food demonstrations.

Achievements included: setting up water stations for families to fill bottles before they leave, children growing vegetables, swapping dried fruit for fresh, creating displays on sugar content and signing up for air quality alerts.

Certificates were awarded by Councillor Nicky Dykes and Bromley Council’s Deputy Chief Executive Ade Adetosoye.

Councillor Nicky Dykes said: “These wonderful events serve as a real reminder of how we can all give our children the very best start in life.

As a parent myself, I know how important it is to get into good habits right from the start. The sort of start young people experience can have a real impact on their future, so we owe it to our next generation to help them be the very best they can.

My thanks go to everyone who has worked so hard to demonstrate some of the ways we can do this and in particular to the fine work of the Early Years Team and Bromley Children Project.”