National Childhood Obesity Week
 
The Action on Childhood Obesity Charter - Addressing Childhood Obesity: A Public Health Priority
 
We, the undersigned, call for more meaningful action to be taken to reduce levels of childhood obesity. If effective change is not achieved, the health, social and financial consequences to the nation will be disastrous.
 
Current strategies to tackle the problem reflect an emerging genuine concern and recognition of the need to engage the issue across all sectors, but the delivery of practical action has been limited in scope, slow in implementation and minimal in its impact, even with concerted efforts to establish a cross-governmental approach and highly visible public health campaigns.
 
Important as it is, ‘educating’ children to make a Change4Life offers no panacea unless it is accompanied by other changes. Children's lives are shaped by an environment which limits their choices and overwhelms them with easy inducements to adopt inappropriate diets – even on the school doorstep.
 
The warnings of the Foresight Report1 and many other studies indicate quite clearly that powerful societal and environmental factors must be addressed in order to make healthier living achievable.
 
Today over 30 percent of children in the 2-15 years age group are overweight or obese2. The outgoing government’s modest goal of reducing by 2020 childhood overweight and obesity prevalence to the year 2000 level of 27 percent3 represents an admission of defeat – condemning around one in five adolescents to be obese by their mid-teens and possibly for the rest of their lives.
 
By 2050 the prevalence of obesity could reach as high as 60% of adult males and 50% of adult females, with annual costs reaching £50 billion4. If, as present targets assume, almost 20% of teenagers continue to turn into obese adults each year, the Foresight prediction could become a reality much sooner.
 
We trust that emerging plans for the new public health service will contribute to far more significant progress being achieved more rapidly in reducing levels of overweight and obesity for both children and adults.
 
We suggest four immediate priorities which the Government should adopt to improve public health and reduce health inequalities.
 
1. Develop and implement a rigorous National Action Plan to reduce childhood overweight and obesity
 
We need a cross-departmental plan with a clear framework, timelines and deliverables for action. The emphasis must be on changing the behaviours that cause obesity. Strategic implementation must be championed by a committed leader with Cabinet level responsibility – an 'Obesity Tsar'.
 
2. Focus on early intervention solutions
 
Tackling the obesity problem requires practical action that is rooted in evidence. It must be focused on prevention and early intervention and an understanding that obesity is itself a chronic disease and contributes to other chronic diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, that need lifelong management.
 
A shift of emphasis to prevention, ultimately empowering and encouraging individuals and communities to achieve improved healthier lives, could have major economic and health benefits for the whole of society.
 
3. Better commissioning to cut costs, bureaucracy and barriers to the delivery of community-focused child obesity interventions.
 
Current limitations in commissioning child weight management programmes mean that services and funding are not reaching the people who matter – children and their families in local communities. A streamlined approach to commissioning is urgently needed.
 
4. Stronger connections between the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) and the delivery of more effective programmes.
 
While there are some excellent individual examples of best practice obtained through NCMP feedback letters introducing parents to existing support services for overweight and obese children, these efforts alone are not enough. This best practice must become common practice and link to broader health strategies.
 
In launching National Childhood Obesity Week, we commit our organisations to increasing our efforts in partnership with government and other stakeholders to work towards achieving more effective and tangible delivery of real reductions in child overweight and obesity.
 
Signed,
 
 
David Haslam, Chair, National Obesity Forum            nationalobesityforum.org
 
Harry MacMillan, Chief Executive, MEND                      
 
Peter Hollins, Chief Executive, British Heart                 bhf.org.uk Foundation
 
Dr David Vickers, RCPCH Registrar, Royal                 rcpch.ac.uk College of Paediatrics and Child Health
 
Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, President, The UK        fph.org.uk Faculty of Public Health
 
Douglas Smallwood, Chief Executive,                         diabetes.org.uk Diabetes UK
 
Graham MacGregor, Chairman, CASH                          actiononsalt.org.uk
 
Tam Fry, Honorary Chairman, Child Growth       childgrowthfoundation.org Foundation
 
Julie Whelan, Chief Executive Officer, Dame                 dkhlegacytrust.org Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust
 
Tom Franklin, Chief Executive, Ramblers                     ramblers.org.uk
 
Cathy Court, Director, Netmums                       netmums.com
 
Nigel Denby, Registered Dietitian and Founder,     grub4life.org Grub4Life
 
Sue Tibballs, Chief Executive, Women’s Sport and    wsff.org.uk Fitness Foundation
 
 
Footnotes:
  1. Government Office for Science, Foresight Programme (2007), Tackling Obesities: Future Choices – Project Report
  2. NHS Information Centre, National Child Measurement Programme (Dec 2009): England 2008/09 School Year
  3. Department of Health, PSA 12 (2007), Improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people
  4. Government Office for Science, Foresight Programme (2007), Tackling Obesities: Future Choices – Project Report

Lottery Logo

   Bookmark and Share