Guide to: Childhood Obesity Strategy

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The Government first released Childhood Obesity: a plan for action in August 2016, aiming to significantly reduce the rate of obesity among young people in England over the following ten years.

FACT: Did you know? Nearly a quarter of children in England are obese or overweight by the time they start primary school

Within two years, however, an update to the plan was published following heavy criticism of the original.

Proposals in the original strategy:

• introducing a soft-drinks industry levy to be
• invested in encouraging physical activity and balanced diets for school-age children, including an extra £10m a year for school breakfast clubs
• reducing 20 per cent of sugar in products that contribute to children’s sugar intake by 2020, including a 5 per cent reduction in the first year
• updating the nutrient profile model which assigns scores to food and drink based on their ingredients
• re-committing to the Healthy Start scheme which provides vouchers for fruit, vegetables and milk, and free vitamins during pregnancy to families on low incomes
• an hour of physical activity a day for every primary school child, including at least 30 minutes in school
• improving school sports programmes and investing in walking and cycling
• to school
• creating a new healthy rating scheme for primary schools encouraging children to eat better and move more
• updating the School Food Standards to reflect new Government dietary recommendations and encouraging all schools, including free schools and academies, to commit to them
• clearer food labelling to help families understand sugar content
• supporting early years settings by developing revised menus as part of voluntary guidelines. Specific reference to be made in the EYFS framework to the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines for physical activity in the early years.

After its publication, the report was criticised by experts including the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) for focusing largely on primary-age children and failing to remove restrictions on advertising and promotional deals on junk food, despite Public Health England’s advice that this would be the most effective way to reduce obesity.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood said the strategy ignored the ‘vital role’ of physical activity, while Pinki Sahota, professor of nutrition and childhood obesity at Leeds Beckett University and chair of the Association for the Study of Obesity, said the plan lacked ‘bold actions’ and pointed out that the new guidelines for early years food would not be mandatory.

Despite some sections of industry meeting the aim to reduce sugar in products by 5 per cent in the year after the plan was published, overall the goal was not achieved.

In June 2018, the Government added a second chapter to the strategy, citing a new national ambition to halve childhood obesity and reduce the gap between children from the most and least deprived areas by 2030, as it emerged that children from deprived areas are more than twice as likely to be overweight.

The second chapter was better received, with the OHA and British Dietetic Association welcoming the new measures. However, both organisations urged the Government to take ‘swift action’ to make its commitments a reality.

Proposals in the second chapter:

Advertising and promotions

• A consultation on introducing a 9pm watershed on TV and online advertising of products that are high in fat, sugar and salt.
• A consultation on banning price promotions on unhealthy food and drink, such as ‘buy one get one free’ and multi-buy offers or unlimited refills.
• A consultation on banning the promotion of unhealthy food and drink at
• checkouts, the end of aisles and store entrances.

Sugar reduction

• A review in 2020 to consider reversing the milk drink exemption from the levy.
• A consultation on ending the sale of energy drinks to children.
• A review in 2019 of progress towards the proposed 20 per cent sugar reduction in foods most commonly eaten by children by 2020. Mandatory and fiscal levers to be considered if industry fails to use voluntary reduction programmes.

Calorie reduction

• A consultation on mandating consistent calorie labelling for restaurants, cafés and takeaways.

Schools

• A review of how the least active children are being engaged in physical
• activity in and around the school day.
• A new national ambition
• for every primary school
• to adopt an active ‘mile initiative’.
• Investment of over £1.6m during 2018/19 to
• support cycling and walking to school.

The report also promised Ofsted would undertake research into what a curriculum that supports good physical development in the early years would look like.

More information

• Reports

Download

Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action

Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action, chapter 2

• Organisations

Obesity Health Alliance

The British Dietetic Association

Healthy Start

The Daily Mile

Organisations
http://obesityhealthalliance.org.uk
https://www.bda.uk.com
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk
https://thedailymile.co.uk.