Andrea Basu

Public Health Dietetics Team

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board

Andrea Basu Image 1.1 Andrea Basu, Service Lead, Public Health Dietetics

I lead a small, passionate and dedicated team of dietitians and dietetic assistants working across North Wales. We work in partnership with many groups and organisations to:

- communicate key public health nutrition messages
- facilitate accredited and standardised courses on food & nutrition
- support the provision of healthy food & drink in community settings

Nutrition is a fast moving science, and as Dietitians it’s vitally important to us that we constantly review the research to ensure food and nutrition messages are practical and accurate. As Registered Dietitians working in the NHS we can be trusted to always provide unbiased evidence based information.

Working alongside me in the East area (Wrexham & Flintshire) is:

- Alys Roberts, Specialist Public Health Dietitian
- Claire O’Kane, Health Practitioner
- Sarah Powell-Jones, Dietetic Assistant Practitioner
- Sarah Jones, Dietetic Assistant

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We work collaboratively with Dietitians in all Welsh health boards to provide a range of food and nutrition courses within the umbrella of Nutrition Skills for Life ^TM , these include;

- Nutrition Skills training for community workers

- such as nursery nurses, youth workers, care workers, teaching assistants, volunteers and many more. We aim to build food and nutrition skills into the everyday work of those are in regular contact with community groups and who best understand the needs of local people.

- Nutrition Skills courses

- for community members enabling groups of individuals in the community to gain knowledge and skills about food and nutrition that benefits their own health and wellbeing. Our team support delivery by training and quality assuring community workers to run them, in addition to our dietetic assistants also facilitating courses themselves.

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Our courses have been carefully designed to support a range of needs, for example our flagship level 2 accredited community food and nutrition skills course for community based workers which is ideal for those working with groups of all ages, enabling access to the current information and resources to support their work and to cascade consistent nutrition messages. This explores the principles of nutrition science and healthy lifestyles to gain a practical understanding of how our food and fluid intake influences our short and long term health and wellbeing.

Our accredited level 2 community food and nutrition skills course for the early years is bespoke for those who have responsibility for food and drink provision in early childcare settings, with content aligned to the Welsh Government standards.

Our courses for community members include ‘Come and Cook’ which has demonstrated many successes in supporting individuals to gain more knowledge, skills and confidence in preparing healthy meals for themselves and their family .

This course is very practical and teaches the basics of nutrition in a relaxed and friendly environment. Those attending frequently tell us they have gained greater confidence in cooking meals from scratch, are eating more fruit and vegetables, and have greater awareness and understanding of the levels of fat, sugar and salt contained within some foods.

Boliau Bach / Tiny Tums

is an example of the work we lead to support the provision of healthy food and drink in community settings. The award is open to Early Years childcare settings in North Wales and was developed to recognise and reward the achievement of best practice in food and drink provision for 1-4 year olds in line with the current Welsh Government guidelines.

To be eligible for the award each setting is required to have at least one member of staff who has attended our accredited training (level 2, early years). Once a staff member has achieved accreditation for their learning the setting is then eligible to apply for our Tiny Tums award, this involves submitting their menus, food policy and a menu checklist.

We assess and provided supportive feedback, advice and guidance to assist them in achieving the award. Successful settings are awarded the Tiny Tums Best Practice certificate and a Tiny Tums window sticker, valid for 3 years. Settings are encouraged to proudly display their certificates and to share the success of their award with parents and children.

All our courses named above are accredited by Agored Cymru and are enabled by our educational partner, Adult Learning Wales.

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Working in Partnership

Year upon year we collaborate to support eating well across our communities and make the most of our collective knowledge, skills and resources. During 2020 we worked alongside healthy schools and education colleagues to cascade practical advice and support for families receiving a free school meals allowance. In 2018/19 we developed ‘Come and Cook with your child’ an adapted version of our Come and Cook programme, facilitated within primary schools and complementary to the curriculum it specifically supports parents and reception aged children.

For further information and to contact us, please email

BCU.PublicHealthDietitians@wales.nhs.uk