Healthy eating and active play in Australian ECEC

What needs to change at the system level – a brief summary

Kuswara, K., Laws, R., Ganakas, E., Bell, C., & Love, P. (2025). Enhancing healthy eating and active play in the Australian early childhood education and care system. Health Promotion International, 40(6), daaf201.

Summary

Early childhood is a critical period for establishing lifelong healthy eating and movement habits. Australian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services are well placed to promote these behaviours, with many already doing so. However, most Australian ECEC services are not consistently supported to enact health promoting practices. This study highlights the need for a national, coordinated approach that combines clear standards, contextual implementation support, and workforce development to improve health outcomes for all young children in ECEC.

What was this study about?

To examine how Australian ECEC services are supported and regulated to promote healthy eating and active play, and to identify system level improvements for the consistent provision of high-quality food and movement environments for young children.

Why this matters?

More than 80% of Australian children under five years are insufficiently active or not eating a nourishing diet, and this worsens with age. With around 1.5 million children attending ECEC for an average of 30 hours per week, ECEC is a key setting to shape early health behaviours. Many ECEC services promote healthy eating and active play, however, the quality and consistency of health promotion practices vary widely. System-level change is needed to support and sustain high quality health promotion across ECEC nationwide.

What did the study do?

The study included:

1. A desktop review of how healthy eating and physical activity promotion in ECEC are regulated and supported in Australia.
2. Interviews with 16 stakeholders, including ECEC providers, quality assurance bodies, and health promotion organisations, to identify opportunities for system improvement.

Key Findings

1. Standards for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity

The National Quality Framework requires Australian ECEC services to promote healthy eating and physical activity. However, the study found that these standards are interpreted and applied differently across the sector. As a result, practice varies across services and jurisdictions, and children do not consistently experience the same level of support for these health behaviours.

2. Different Perspectives Across the System

Stakeholders agreed on the importance of healthy eating and active play but viewed the problem and solutions differently. Differences in problem perception contributed to fragmented approaches and limited coordinated action. Quality assurance bodies often reported that most ECEC services met current standards. ECEC providers described working within practical constraints such as space, weather, educators’ abilities, and family engagement. Health promotion organisations highlighted considerable scope for improvements, for example, in food budgets, nutritional quality of menus, and staff capacity to model and promote these behaviours with children and their families.

3. Approaches to improving practice

Two broad approaches were identified:

• Regulatory approaches, such as clearer or more consistently applied standards for healthy eating and physical activity.
• Supportive approaches, including incentives, professional development, and practical implementation support.

Most stakeholders considered that a combination of both was needed for sustained improvement.

4. Building Sector Capacity

There was broad agreement that strengthening the sector’s capacity was central to improvement. Priorities include:

• Developing a nationally coordinated policy framework with clear evidence-based standards for healthy eating and physical activity, complemented with contextual implementation support at the local level.
• Investing in workforce development, including embedding healthy eating and active play principles into ECEC pedagogy through pre-service and ongoing professional learning.
• Providing strong system leadership to facilitate a coordinated approach to implementation and capacity building.

What does this mean for policy and practice?

This study highlights the current gaps and opportunities for systems change. Further consultation with a wider range of stakeholders is needed to assess feasibility and support contextual implementation across diverse ECEC settings.

• Embed healthy eating and active play in everyday teaching while providing nutritious foods and opportunities for active play.
• Strengthen state-level collaboration between regulators, ECEC providers, and health promotion organisations to align assessment of healthy eating and active play standards and provide context-sensitive implementation support.
• Establish a national coordinating body to lead and coordinate regulation, support, and workforce development across ECEC.

The full article can be found here: Enhancing healthy eating and active play in the Australian early childhood education and care system | Health Promotion International | Oxford Academic