Context from the October 2011 Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Call to Action on Obesity, [3] which set out the government’s commitment to specific central government initiatives, including:

• the Change4Life campaign, which will continue to provide information to support families and individuals to make simple changes to their diet and activity levels; 

• the continuation of the NHS Health Check programme, which is aimed at preventing heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease, and supports eligible people to reduce or manage that risk through individually tailored advice; 

• work with the food and drink industry, as part of the Public Health  Responsibility Deal 

• the National Child Measurement Programme, so that local areas have information to plan and commission local services; and 

• building the evidence base to help inform local prioritisation through the work of the National Obesity Observatory.

The government committed to supporting local effort through action in the following key areas:

(1) Providing robust data and evidence:

– Continued commitment to and investment in the National Child Measurement Programme

– Developing new measures of adult and maternal obesity to provide data at local level

– Supporting data analysis and a culture of evaluation through the National obesity observatory (and transitioning its role into PHE)

– Supporting good practice collection, collation and dissemination through the obesity Learning Centre (and transitioning its functions into PHE)

– Investing in well-targeted research.  

(2) Helping to build local capability:

– supporting effective commissioning of weight management services through further development of the Standard Evaluation Framework and new National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on best practice for adult and child weight management services

– Bringing together extensive best practice material in authoritative new NICE guidance on Working with local communities to prevent obesity

– Maximising the contribution of the planning system through a new Healthy Places Planning Resource

– Supporting NHS healthcare professionals’ contribution through the Healthy Child Programme, NHS Health Check and ‘making every contact count‘.

Key tasks which can only be delivered from the centre—that complement rather than displace local activity—include.:

Helping people to make healthy food and drink choices:

– Using the Responsibility Deal Food Network to harness the contribution of the food and drink industry as a force for good, through:

– the introduction of calorie labelling in out-of-home settings to support informed decisions by consumers – a greater and leading role (alongside Government and others) in reducing the population’s calorie intake by 5 billion calories (kcal) a day to help to close the gap between energy in and energy out, as part of a calorie reduction challenge, for example through reformulation, portion control or changing the balance of food promotion.

– Improving at-a-glance nutrition information for consumers on food and drink, as a result of the framework provided by the new EU Food Information Regulation

– Continued effort to support healthier food provision in the education system

Helping people to be more active:

– New Chief Medical officers’ guidelines on physical activity including recommendations for early years and sedentary behaviour

– Developing a new national ambition on physical activity

– New pledges by a range of businesses to support physical activity through the Responsibility Deal Physical Activity Network

– A range of initiatives and opportunities linked to the London 2012 olympic and Paralympic Games, including Places People Play, Sportivate, Gold Challenge, and the school Games.

– Getting the most inactive children in schools into sport through Change4Life school sport clubs – Continued support for active travel through the Local sustainable Transport Fund and Bikeability

– Continued advice and support through NHs Choices

Transforming the environment – for health and the economy:

– An acceleration of efforts to encourage healthy workplaces that help to address obesity

– Maximising the potential of the planning system to support health and economic development through the proposed National Planning Policy Framework

– Speaking directly to individuals and families through Change4Life, underpinned by a new strategy, new messages and a range of new initiatives.