Agenda item
Childhood Obesity
The report describes the pattern of childhood obesity in Brent and action being taken to address the high levels.
Minutes:
Councillor Krupesh Hirani (Lead Member for Community Wellbeing) presented the report which described the pattern of childhood obesity in Brent and outlined the actions that had been taken to address the issue. The prevalence of childhood obesity in Brent was among the highest in the country and there was a clear link between deprivation and obesity (Graph 5 on page 82 of the Agenda pack). A number of actions, such as restriction of the opening of new fast food restaurants within 400 metres of a secondary school or a further education establishment, the Slash Sugar campaign, and the Healthy Early Years (HEY) Award, had been taken to address the problem. In addition, Public Health and Physical Education (PE) teachers had held a successful conference (‘The Power of an Active School) at Wembley Stadium in January 2018 where talks had been delivered to children about what they could do to be more active and improve their diet. Councillor Hirani reminded Members that despite the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (commonly known as ‘the Sugar Tax’) coming into force in April 2018 and the traffic light labels becoming mandatory for food outlets, promoting a balanced diet remained challenging as some businesses continued to organise ‘buy one, get one free’ promotions on unhealthy foods.
In relation to the timeframe for results to become noticeable, Councillor Hirani pointed out that the outcomes of the activities currently undertaken would not become visible in the next five to ten years. He suggested that a similar approach as the one taken towards smoking should be adopted where the government had intervened to change people’s behaviour and he acknowledged that the introduction of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy would be a step in the right direction. When asked about the other underlying causes of childhood obesity, Councillor Hirani said that factors such as housing, employment and education had an impact on people’s health and their risk of becoming obese. This led to a discussion on the reasons why the obesity rate among people of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) origin was higher compared to other groups of the population. It was noted that apart from deprivation, culture played an important role as in some communities having overweight children meant that they were well fed which indicated that there were barriers that had to be overcome. Therefore, it might be necessary to target specific campaigns at these communities, run events with them and train key people within them to promote healthy lifestyle messages – for example, a stall would be set up as part of the Central Middlesex Hospital Community Hub and tailored messages had been delivered to residents at Diwali. Dr Melanie Smith (the Council’s Director of Public Health) added that the campaigns had to engage all family members because if both parents were obese, this could lead to an increased risk for their children.
Duncan Ambrose (Assistant Director at National Health Service (NHS) Brent CCG) expressed support for this approach and gave an example of promoting cardiovascular exercise which was good for both obesity and dementia. Mr Ambrose noted that health contracts had been updated to include working with people who might have become ill as a result of their obesity. Furthermore, Dr Smith explained that obesity was a risk factor for diabetes and certain ethnic groups had higher propensity to develop the condition. As far as short-term actions were concerned, Members heard that a street campaign had been planned. It would focus on organising road shows at three locations in the Borough aiming to raise awareness of the matter and to promote the new Brent Health Application.
Members commented that it was essential to differentiate between size and good health as eating disorders were on the rise among children going through puberty and, therefore, it was important to prevent the triggering of unhealthy relationships with food. Instead, children had to be encouraged to undertake physical activity and to understand the relationship between food ingredients and the final product. Dr Smith supported this approach and noted that instead of ‘demonising’ certain foods, an environment which allowed both children and parents to make informed choices had to be created.
A Member of the Committee asked how the activities currently undertaken were evaluated. Councillor Hirani responded by using outdoor gyms as an example – conversations with gym users had indicated that the availability of these facilities had increased the amount of activity undertaken by residents as people who could not afford subscription fees were able to exercise free of charge. In addition, a new sports centre was due to open in June 2018 and Brent residents would be encouraged to use it by offering subsidised rates. Councillor Hirani informed the Committee that work had been undertaken with General Practice surgeries to develop a referral scheme to direct people to gyms and leisure centres. Three private gym providers had signed up which had doubled the capacity of the Council’s existing provision. Moreover, the Good Food for London report, which measured boroughs on 11 different good food measures, had ranked Brent 13 out of 33, meaning that it was the most improved borough, having improved 10 places since 2016. From a financial perspective, Minesh Patel (the Council’s Head of Finance – Community and Wellbeing) said that it was difficult to predict the future benefits for the Council, but pointed out that current interventions could save costs for the National Health Service (NHS) in the future. Nevertheless, it had to be noted that there were limits to what a single borough could achieve – for instance, the planning restriction applied in Brent had been an example how the planning system could be used to reduce obesity and it had been suggested to be included in the London Plan, but this was subject to various consultations. In a similar way, collaboration could be established with other teams across the Council such as Transportation.
An Observer commented that young people were more independent than their parents and noted that it had been difficult to ensure that healthy eating diets were followed outside children’s homes. For example, young people would continue buying sweets and fizzy drinks even if a levy was introduced, hence, it was necessary to target media campaigns and billboards raising awareness about the risks associated with obesity and unhealthy eating at children rather than at their parents. Councillor Hirani said that the Council had tried to engage with schools and while the Local Authority had been successful in delivering campaigns at primary schools, getting direct access to secondary schools had been difficult so this could be a challenge that could be addressed in collaboration with members of the Brent Youth Parliament.
Members enquired about ward-specific information about childhood obesity and Dr Smith noted that while data by school was available, it had not been included in the report presented to the Committee as disclosing it could lead to identifying specific children. Nevertheless, she assured Members that the information was used to prioritise schools to engage with. Mr Ambrose added that the Council and the CCG were working together to create an electronic Red Book from which frontline practitioners could extract population data.
A Member enquired about the measures being taken to encourage people to set up and book play streets. Councillor Hirani pointed out that the process depended on volunteers. However, he acknowledged that play streets could be promoted better especially in areas where high levels of obesity had been registered.
In terms of future aspirations, Councillor Hirani commented that he would like the prevalence of childhood obesity to be decreasing.
RESOLVED that:
(i) The contents of the Childhood Obesity report, be noted;
(ii) The action being taken to address the high levels of childhood obesity in Brent be noted;
(iii)The closer collaboration between the Planning and the Public Health teams be endorsed;
(iv)A partnership-based approach which maximises existing opportunities, such as play streets, be developed, taking into account the needs of individual wards;
(v) The new sports centre which is due to open in June 2018 be included in the Social Care Service Social Prescribing Arrangements;
(vi)Representatives of the Brent Youth Parliament be involved in delivering campaigns at secondary schools; and
(vii) A Task and Finish Group on childhood obesity be set up in collaboration with the Brent Youth Parliament.
Supporting documents: