LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN

This page is for anyone who has an involvement with or responsibility for 'looked after' children. Usually, this includes:

• Foster carers

• Residential workers

• Support staff and associated managers

• Family/ friends carers

• Family support worked

• Independent review officers

• Prospective adopters

• Looked After Children nurses.

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There are over 93,000 children in the UK in care and are considered a particularly nutritionally vulnerable group. It is important that these children receive adequate nutrition, as their access to adequate health care has been found to often be poor, and there is considerable evidence that as adults these children have an increased vulnerability to ill health. Nutritional status, which is well evidenced to be able to protect against ill health, is therefore particularly important amongst this group of children. This is further compounded by findings suggesting that it is not unusual for these children to have received inadequate nutrition in their early life. Find out why nutrition is so important during childhood here.

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It is thought that between one in ten and one in five children in care are from a minority ethnic group; highlighting the importance of catering for different cultural and religious dietary needs. 

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