Healthy Child Development

Overview

A small multi-disciplinary group has developed a detailed description of the features of healthy child development. This term, the group has focused on children’s development from the perinatal period to 11 years. The next phase of work will focus on the teenage years and will be completed by the end of the summer term.

Children’s development has been described in detail in three inter-connected areas:

• Social and emotional development, speech, language and communication.
• Physical development, movement and co-ordination.
• Cognitive development, curiosity, confidence and creativity.

We have further subdivided each of these areas. For example, social and emotional development, speech, language and communication is subdivided into receptive language, expressive language, social interaction, emotional literacy and regulation, belonging and identity, and attachment.

Research supports our view that these are the important and generative features of healthy development during childhood.

While there are many varied models of child development, most conceptualise it to be sequential and cumulative, with later development building on skills and capacities acquired earlier. We have therefore described in detail how children grow and develop in each area through the perinatal period, early childhood and childhood. Although we see this as a continuous process with many predictable features, we know that it has a unique course for every child; it does not always progress at the same rate and each stage is affected by the preceding one.

We also recognise that children learn and grow through progressively more complex interactions with people, objects and symbols in their immediate environment. Importantly, this is a gradual and reciprocal relationship between a child and its physical and social environment. We have therefore included a description of what children need to support healthy development in each area.

Development Opportunity

Healthy Child Development Brief:

Expressions of interest are invited for a partner organisation or group of organisations to contribute to the next phase of development of Sheffield’s Healthy Child Development model.

Total funding available: £30,000

Time Period: March – September 2026

As part of work in Sheffield to develop the city’s new SEND and Inclusion Strategy (Shaped by What’s Around Us, partners from education, health, the voluntary sector and children’s services have been working on a holistic and connected description of the features of healthy child development. The work is based on the belief that a shared understanding of what this looks like through childhood and the teenage years will act as a guide for identifying children’s needs, developing practice and supporting multi-agency working.

Our goal is to create a range of products that have value for children and young people, parents and carers, our colleagues in the children’s workforce, and senior, executive and civic leaders in the city. We want the big ideas and the detailed healthy child development content to be understood and valued so that it influences the decisions people make and the things they do. We want more children have positive experiences and achieve good outcomes in early childhood, childhood and their teenage years.

There are three next steps:

• Assemble the content we have created in a way that makes it accessible and easy to navigate. We want to ‘tell our story’, provide a high-level picture of the theory and big ideas that have shaped our thinking as well as organise and present the detailed content clearly and coherently.
• Use co-production to develop digital products that will help the people we want to influence understand and use the healthy child development model. We want to do this in a ‘do with not do to’ way. The initial focus will be the features of an enabling environment for learning and development and what this looks like in practice [from different people’s perspectives and building outwards from what they need themselves in their environment]. We will then replicate this approach for the other big ideas such as the principles of attuned relationships, interactions and guidance.
• Use a test and learn approach to develop different ways of working that are informed by the healthy child development model. These will be small-scale activities, such as the bedtime stories project in locality B and other activities that exemplify how the healthy child development model can be used in practice.

We are looking for a partner [or partners] who can work with us on:

• Developing a coherent communications strategy for the healthy child development model.
• Co-producing high-quality digital products for children and young people, parents and carers, education, health and children’s services professionals, and senior, executive and civic leaders.

If you feel your organisation has the skills, expertise and desire to be part of delivering the Sheffield Healthy Child Development model please complete the short form below by Monday 23 February 2026:

Download the Healthy Child Development Expression of Interest Form
Download the Healthy Child Development Brief

Please note you may be requested to attend an ‘in person’ meeting on Thursday 5 March 2026 at Learn Sheffield, Suite 6, Albion House, Savile Street, Sheffield, S4 7UD, where you will be asked to present and pitch your ideas to the group of experts working across the NHS, Education, Early Years, Social Care and Voluntary Sector who are developing the Sheffield Healthy Child Development model. Further details will be provided.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this opportunity further, please contact Bethan Plant via enquiries@learnsheffield.co.uk.