The Healthy Start scheme helps families access nutritious food and vitamins during pregnancy and early childhood. Despite the benefits available, uptake among eligible families in Wales remained lower than expected.
Public Health Wales wanted to understand why awareness and eligibility alone were not translating into participation. The organisation needed deeper insight into the emotional, behavioural and practical factors influencing engagement, helping identify how communications, support and service delivery could be improved.
Unlike traditional research focused on awareness and understanding, we explored the emotional and behavioural drivers influencing participation.
We uncovered the emotional barriers, motivations and decision-making factors shaping engagement with the scheme.
By speaking with both eligible families and professionals, we identified where confidence, trust and practical challenges affected uptake.
Behavioural insight was translated into clear opportunities to improve communications, professional support and the overall application experience.
Barriers to participation were often emotional as well as technical, with confidence playing a key role in application completion.
Messages focused on supporting children's health and wellbeing created stronger engagement than messages centred on financial support.
Feelings of independence, self-reliance and concerns about stigma influenced willingness to apply.
Health professionals play an important role in building confidence, reducing uncertainty and encouraging engagement.
The research provided Public Health Wales with a deeper understanding of the emotional and behavioural factors affecting Healthy Start scheme uptake.
Insights are helping shape messaging that feels more relevant, supportive and motivating for eligible families.
The findings informed opportunities to help trusted professionals encourage participation more effectively.
Behavioural insight identified ways to reduce barriers, simplify engagement and create a more empowering experience for families.
Talk to us about how behavioural science, customer experience research and customer insight can help uncover the factors shaping loyalty, engagement and decision-making.
