A safe environment for a child is one that provides freedom from harm and offers a strong sense of security and belonging from which to play, learn and develop. A healthy and safe environment also promotes children’s psychological wellbeing by allowing them to exercise their independence through making decisions and taking on new challenges. Educators are responsible for providing and maintaining safe environments for children in their care, including the development of strategies to prevent injury in indoor and outdoor environments. Injury prevention promotes safety, protects the child and minimises risk. Injury prevention also provides procedures to manage injuries as they occur. By protecting children from hazards, injury prevention offers children the sense of safety and security that allows them to develop to their fullest potential.

Along with the establishment of values and belief systems, the early years, from birth to 12 years, are increasingly recognised as the crucial time in which the foundations for life are laid, with significant consequences for educational success, resilience and future participation in society. The formative years are the years in which the capacity for carers and educators to make a difference can and does have profound effects. Carers and educators need specialist preparation because they are required to promote and teach health and wellbeing and to have the skills and knowledge to understand and manage the plethora of issues related to young children. Around the world, including in Australia, early years education is undergoing significant reform as the potential for educators to improve children’s quality of life is better understood. These reforms herald health and wellbeing as central constructs of this agenda. This chapter explores the concepts of health and wellbeing and shares some of the initiatives that have put health and wellbeing on the agenda for early years learners in contemporary times.

Children are faced with a rapidly changing world that is having a significant influence on their health and wellbeing. These changes include alterations to our food supply, new approaches to the marketing of food and other lifestyle factors that influence children’s food consumption. The early years represent a pivotal period in the establishment of food literacy – that is, dietary education, behaviours and preferences – when children are forming their tastes and preferences and are most receptive to health messages. Food literacy is a relatively recent concept that has emerged over the past decade (McManus et al., 2022), and early years settings, schools and caregivers are ideally placed to assist early years learners to develop positive attitudes towards, and knowledge about, healthy food. This is also relevant to schools because healthy children are better learners, and evidence suggests that a holistic approach to education that includes health and nutrition has wide-reaching benefits for children and educators.