Changes to looking after children's weight makes a big difference to families

Supporting healthy weight and growth during childhood is an important step to a healthy start and creating a healthy future – that’s why our Healthy Weight Team has made changes to their approach.

The National Child Measurement Programme measures and weighs primary school children to identify any problems and offers parents support to tackle any underlying issues.

It can be a challenging process for both parents and the school health team, as weight is a sensitive and complex issue to discuss, but it’s a vital tool to monitor children’s health and to provide the opportunity for families to have a conversation, as well as access to information and support which makes a real difference.

Lindsay Gilbert from the Healthy Weight Team said: “A healthy future is what we all want for our children, so it’s not easy to hear your child may need help with their weight, or may even be at risk of heart disease or diabetes as they get older.

“As part of the programme, parents are sent a letter with their child’s results but we know from feedback this can cause upset – and that’s really not what we want.

“We’ve been working hard with parents and staff to make changes to the letter and improving staff training on how we have those important conversations with families.

“We have also improved our service offer for parents and the changes we have put in place have made a real difference. One mum told us how life was so busy, it was difficult for her to find the time to make healthy food for the family. After a brief telephone conversation with a member of the school health team, she realised just a few small changes would make a huge difference.”

The project began as a quality improvement (QI) initiative and has seen an increase in the uptake of the Family Support Programme for Healthy Weight.

The team recognises there is more work to do and has set up a parent focus group for anyone who would like to get involved. Interested? Email the QI team kentchft.qi@nhs.net

 Or find out more about the project on our QI website.