This following will be attending the meeting to support this item:

·         Dr Yasin, Community Paediatric Team;

·         Alison Roberts, Deputy Director of Commissioning, MCCG; and

·         Christa Blanckenberg, CAMHS Commissioning Manager, MCCG.

Childhood obesity

Hilina Asrress, Senior Public Health Principal, provided an introduction:

·         34.7% (2016/17) of Merton's children are currently judged to be overweight in Year 6 which means this figure has been reduced below the Health and Wellbeing target, is on par with England and better than London;

·         However, there remains a ten percentage point difference between childhood obesity levels in the east and the west of the borough.  The target is to reduce this to a 9.2% difference through targeted activity in the east of the borough;

·         Further work continues in reducing childhood obesity overall as currently there are an estimated 4,500 children who are either overweight or obese equating to around 150 primary classes.  The Child Healthy Weight Action Plan seeks to achieve this through communication and engagement, tackling the food environment, increased physical activity and health promoting physical environments and working with children in early years and schools; and

·         Priorities for 2018 include reducing sugar intake (signing up to the Local Authority Declaration on Sugar reduction), better use of parks and playgrounds to increase physical activity, working to make Merton more baby friendly to increase breastfeeding rates and the introduction of the Merton Mile to encourage daily physical activity (including marking out a mile in parks to encourage activity as a family taking the Daily Mile in schools out into the community).  Partnership working with key stakeholders including the voluntary and community sector is supporting the delivery of these priorities.

In response to member questions, it was further clarified:

·         The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) focuses on Reception and Year 6. We know that there is a significant increase in obesity rates between Reception and Year 6 therefore many interventions are targeted at younger children.  Intervention work also tends to be focused on younger children because this is when the greatest affect on long term health and well-being habits can be achieved;

·         In addition to the initiatives identified within the paper to address the obesity gap, practical activities are being provided in the east of the borough such as a health and well-being awareness raising day where information on physical activity, opportunities to be active and nutritional information were provided.  To support this, the Child Healthy Weight Action Plan will be refreshed in due course taking into account achievements as well a resident feedback from the Merton Great Weight Debate;

·         The target for reducing the gap between the east and west of the borough (from 10% to 9.2%) does represent a significant ambition because it's predicated on the gap increasing to around 13% if no action is taken.  Also the longer term target is to reduce the gap to 8% by 2020;

·         The figure for the rate of childhood obesity in Merton is robust because it is calculated based on the NCMP that occurs in Reception and Year 6 and involves around 95% of children being measured.  There are some schools in the east of the borough where 50% of the Year 6 cohort are either overweight or  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5