Obesity: Children

Department of Health written question – answered at on 8 February 2017.

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Photo of Andrew Rosindell Andrew Rosindell NATO Parliamentary Assembly UK Delegation, Co Chair, British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to educate parents on child obesity.

Photo of Nicola Blackwood Nicola Blackwood The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health

Tackling childhood obesity is a priority for this government as set out in the Childhood Obesity Action Plan (2016), and providing information to parents is an important part of our strategy.

Change4Life is Public Health England’s (PHE) flagship campaign to help families and children in England to eat well, and move more. In January 2017 Change4Life launched the Be Food Smart campaign, which provides practical information to parents on the sugar, salt and saturated fat content of everyday food and drink.

PHE is also responsible for the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). PHE provides guidance to local authorities on how to meet their statutory requirement to weigh and measure every child attending state school in reception and Year 6. PHE recommends that parents are provided with information about the programme and a feedback letter reporting the results. The template materials provided for local tailoring include information about maintaining a healthy weight and links to NCMP pages on the Change4Life website.

The Change4Life website can be viewed here:

https://www.nhs.uk/change4life-beta/be-food-smart

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