Information for Early Years Settings

A quarter of five-year-old children in England have tooth decay, increasing to 50% in deprived areas. Tooth decay causes pain and suffering with wider impacts on child development, attendance at early years settings and school readiness.

Daily supervised toothbrushing with a fluoride toothpaste in early years settings (nurseries, childminders and schools) is effective at reducing tooth decay, especially in children at greatest risk and is cost effective too. Due to it’s consequences for children’s education, dental health is included in the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance and the government has invested £11 million in 20025/26 to expand supervised toothbrushing to 600,000 children aged 3- 5 years old living in deprived areas.

Early-years settings include nurseries, schools and childminders. For those running a supervised toothbrushing programme, responsibilities include supervision of the toothbrushing scheme, managing consent forms, delivering daily brushing in line with guidelines, maintaining infection control, checking and caring for equipment, and liaising with the provider for ongoing training needs.

Centres of religion

Consider approaching local centres of religion/faith to reach a wider audience. An example of this is the “Smiling with the Prophet” project in Bradford. This project raised oral health awareness in mosques, introducing the Prophet Mohammed as a role model to encourage young children to look after their teeth and eat well.
Poster campaigns

Consider advertising information about the programme through public advertisement, such as banners on buses, at bus stops, and across available poster-stands. Also, in places where families and people who work with young children and families are likely to visit such as the local library, swimming pool, children’s centres and supermarkets. Consider if you need to provide posters in additional languages to address potential language barriers.
Health visiting teams

Work with health visiting teams to coordinate information, raising awareness of supervised toothbrushing programmes to new parents, and offering information to them.
Link with other campaigns

Consider approaching other healthy lifestyle campaigns, to coordinate work and spread information more widely. An example of such a campaign is the GULP (Give Up Loving Pop) campaign which raises awareness on the negative impact sugar has on teeth and overall health.
School initiatives

Consider finding existing health/oral health initiatives to help raise awareness of the Supervised Toothbrushing Programme. There are several initiatives already in place across different areas of the country, such as ‘Book, Brush, Bed’, which seek to instil healthy and regular routines.
Social media

Being very active on social media about the supervised toothbrushing programme raises awareness for parents, settings within a particular area, and opens up possibilities for shared peer-to peer learning.
Local magazine or newspaper

Consider raising awareness through your local magazine or newspaper. You can advertise the presence of the programme or engage the community through local competitions. One such example is where a provider liaised with the local council and local supermarket to advertise a summer colouring competition of toothbrushes and toothpaste. The local councillor decided the winner, and in collaboration with the supermarket, they were provided with a fruit hamper, toothbrushes and toothpaste as a prize.
Involve local library services

If possible, provide local libraries with the funds to send local nurseries/schools a resource box and discuss the possibility of providing all 3-year-olds a book on toothbrushing.
Community building

Liaise and build partnerships with family agencies supporting families such as charities, food banks, local farms, etc. Provide them with oral health training so everyone is giving consistent messaging.