Jul 05 2010
New Charter calls for action on childhood obesity
A group of leading health organisations, including the National Obesity Forum, MEND, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the British Heart Foundation have today (5th July) launched a Charter calling on the government to announce their plans to tackle childhood obesity. The Charter is being launched at the outset of the inaugural National Childhood Obesity Week, which runs from 5th – 11th July.
In the Action on Childhood Obesity Charter, the organisations call on the new government to set out its short and long term plans for reducing childhood obesity levels. Government statistics, collated through the National Child Measurement Programme, show that over one in five children are overweight and obese when they start school in Reception class, with this figure rising to one in three when they reach Year 6.
The organisations are calling on the coalition government to set new and more ambitious targets to tackle child obesity that outstrip the outgoing government’s modest goal of reducing by 2020 childhood overweight and obesity prevalence to the year 2000 level of 27 percent. This is significantly less ambitious than Michelle Obama’s target to reduce child obesity in the US to five percent by 2030.
Harry MacMillan, chief executive of MEND, a social enterprise that provides free after-school healthy lifestyle programmes for families, said: “With an estimated three million overweight and obese children in the UK, childhood obesity is undoubtedly the most dangerous epidemic facing this country. We’re encouraged by the new coalition government’s focus on public health and desire to reduce health inequalities and would like to work alongside them to help achieve their vision of fitter, healthier and happier families.”
Tam Fry, Honorary Chairman, Child Growth Foundation and Board member of the National Obesity Forum, said: “The outgoing government’s target to simply level-off child obesity levels 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. During the inaugural National Childhood Obesity Week, we want the new coalition government to pledge its commitment to making a real and tangible reduction in child obesity levels. If immediate action is not taken to reduce childhood obesity, the social, economic and health repercussions will be devastating.”
Peter Hollins, Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: “Obesity has never been higher up the list of public health issues. Obese children are more likely to be obese adults of the future putting them at greater risk of heart disease. It’s been estimated that over half of heart attacks are due to abdominal obesity. While children, teachers and parents all have a role to play in developing healthy habits, the government has a vital role to play in creating an environment that makes healthy choices easy choices. Let’s act now to make sure we don’t have a generation of children destined to die younger than their parents.”
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Notes to editors
For media enquiries or for a copy of the Action on Childhood Obesity Charter, please contact MEND press office, 020 7231 7225, 07872 506996 (out-of-hours) or lucy.hannagan@mendcentral.org
- Organisations who have signed the Action on Childhood Obesity Charter are: National Obesity Forum, MEND, British Heart Foundation, The UK Faculty of Public Health, Diabetes UK, Netmums, Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, Ramblers, Child Growth Foundation, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH), Grub4Life, Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
- The inaugural National Childhood Obesity Week runs from 5 – 11 July.
