Healthy Start City & Hackney

Free vitamins are available to help your baby and young children grow up strong and healthy and help you maintain your health during pregnancy and after birth.

Healthy Start Vitamin children’s drops contain A, C & D and women’s tablets contain Vitamin C, D & Folic acid.

Healthy Start Vitamins are suitable for Vegetarian, Kosher and Halal diets, and are free from milk, egg, gluten, soya and peanut residue. 

Healthy Start Children's Vitamin drops can be given to your baby right from birth and now come with additional Vitamin D. Vitamin D is important for the development of healthy strong bones, muscles and teeth.

If you live in or go to the GP in City and Hackney, free vitamins are available for:

• pregnant women
• new mothers
• and children under 4 years

Healthy Start Vitamins can be collected from Children's Centres and from pharmacies, including:

• Over 40 community pharmacies in Hackney
• Chauhan S Chemist on Goswell Road, Golden Lane Estate, London EC1M 7AA.

Simply fill out a registration form and bring it to the Children’s Centre or pharmacy to pick up your 8 week supply of vitamins and come back to collect your new supply after 8 weeks.

For more information or support with access to Vitamins please contact HENRY City & Hackney on 07519109876 or hcsupport@henry.org.uk

Parents are advised to offer an over the counter Vitamin D to children aged 4 or over, particularly through the winter months for the prevention of Rickets and poor growth as recommended by Public Health England.

Healthy Start digital scheme

If you are pregnant or have children under the age of 4 years you could also be eligible for the Healthy Start digital scheme, which can be used to purchase fresh or formula milk, fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables from any shop or supermarket that is registered to take part.

Please click here for further information on how to register for this and find out if you are qualify for the scheme*.

Effective 6 April 2020 the health professional signature is no longer required on a Healthy Start voucher application. If you don’t have an application form, a paper application can be accessed here. 

*Temporary extension to Healthy Start eligibility

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has recently agreed to temporarily extend the Healthy Start scheme to British children (aged under 4 years old), whose parent/guardian meet the financial eligibility criteria and are excluded from claiming public funds as a consequence of their immigration status, or their lack of immigration status.

To qualify for the temporary extension you must meet all the following criteria:

• you have parental responsibility for at least one British child, who is less than 4 years old;
• your family’s take-home pay is less than £408 per month; and
• you are excluded from claiming public funds as a consequence of your immigration status or your lack of immigration status

If you meet the eligibility criteria above and would like to apply for Healthy Start, please email Healthystartclaim@dhsc.gov.uk and DHSC will be in touch with you to discuss the application process. You can use the same email address if you have any other questions or get in touch with us at HENRY on 07519 109872 or at hcsupport@henry.org.uk

Where you can use Heathy Start:

All the major supermarkets accept Healthy Start. 

You can use Healthy Start in many other smaller retailers. Use this list (opens word doc: 15KB) to find retailers who are part of the scheme in City & Hackney. If a retailer is not on this list, please check with the retailer directly.