Healthy Movers is delivered in early years settings and aims to develop children’s physical literacy, wellbeing and school readiness through a range of physical play and activities. The programme is delivered through resources and training for practitioners in early years settings and families to continue the activities at home. Healthy Movers was delivered by the Youth Sport Trust (YST), in partnership with Public Health Dorset.

The Youth Sport Trust’s Research and Insight Team conducted an evaluation of the Healthy Movers programme to provide evidence of what worked well and less well and to understand the extent to which outcomes were achieved.

The research found that:

• The on-going support from the tutors has been critical to building practitioners’ confidence to deliver the programme.
• Parents have engaged well in stay and play sessions and the children have loved receiving the Healthy Movers back-packs, which has helped to reinforce the learning at home.
• Children’s physical literacy has improved significantly.  Parents and practitioners have also cited improvements to children’s communication and language skills, social skills, engagement at nursery, and school readiness.  Data has also shown some improvements in literacy and mathematics.

The evaluation report can be accessed below. On the right-hand side, you can access three supporting case studies and the executive summary.