Who should take action?

• Directors of public health
• Local government communications leads
• Health and wellbeing board chairs
• Local coordinator
• Public health teams
• Communications leads
• Executive directors of local authority services

Actions

• The commitment of middle managers and those with a strategic role is particularly important. For example, they should:

• be aware of, and committed to, the obesity agenda in the health and wellbeing strategy​

• be aware of the impact of obesity on other priorities (for example, the rising local incidence of type 2 diabetes, due to obesity).

• Health and wellbeing board chairs and executive directors of local authority services should advocate for action on obesity in any discussions with partners or the local media.​

• The local coordinator and public health teams should ensure the results of all monitoring and evaluation are made available to all those who can use them to inform their work, both in the local community and nationally. For example, log evaluation reports in the Obesity Learning Centre, healthy places databases or the NICE shared learning database.​

• The local coordinator and communications leads should ensure information from monitoring and evaluation is accessible and easy to use by everyone in the community, including those involved with obesity prevention, local groups and networks, the media and the public. This includes presenting information in accessible formats and different languages.​

• See also using community resources and lay and peer workers to tailor interventions and target communities at high risk of type 2 diabetes​

• Local government communications leads should ensure obesity prevention programmes are highly visible and easily recognisable. Recognition may be increased – and costs kept to a minimum – by adapting a widely known brand for use locally (such as the DH's Change4Life). Where appropriate, branding should be agreed by elected members and the health and wellbeing board.

• Communications leads should ensure partners have shared vision, speak with 'a common voice' and are clearly identifiable to the community. This can be fostered by promoting all relevant activities under the obesity programme 'brand' and using this branding consistently over the long term.
  
  

Communicating with black, Asian and minority ethnic groups

• Ensure practitioners are aware that members of black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups are at an increased risk of chronic health conditions at a lower BMI than the white population (below BMI 25 kg/m2).​

• Ensure members of black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups are aware that they face an increased risk of chronic health conditions at a lower BMI than the white population (below BMI 25 kg/m2).​

• Use existing local black and other minority ethnic information networks to disseminate information on the increased risks these groups face at a lower BMI.

Language

• Directors of public health and local government communications leads should carefully consider the type of language and media to use to communicate about obesity, tailoring language to the situation or intended audience. Local insight may be particularly important when developing communications to subgroups within a community or specific at-risk groups. For example, in communications to some local communities, it might be better to refer to a 'healthier weight' rather than 'preventing obesity', and to talk more generally about health and wellbeing or specific community issues. Making explicit the relevance of a wide range of initiatives for tackling obesity, for example in annual reports, may be helpful.

• Align actions to prevent obesity at a community level with strategies to prevent type 2 diabetes to ensure a coherent, integrated approach (see the preventing type 2 diabetes pathway).