Who should take action?

• Directors of public health and public health teams
• Chairs of local health and wellbeing boards
• Executive directors of local authority services
• Council leaders and elected members
• Leaders of local voluntary and community organisations
• Clinical commissioning group leads for obesity (where they exist)
• Clinical commissioning representatives on local health and wellbeing boards
• Local education and training boards

Actions

• All of the above should provide visible, strategic leadership to tackle obesity at all levels and ensure an effective team is in place.​

• Directors of public health and public health teams should ensure all those responsible for activity that impacts on obesity understand the needs and priorities of the local community, as outlined in JSNAs. They should ensure all partners understand JSNA priorities and be prepared to decommission services, if necessary, to divert resources to priority areas.​

• Local authority chief executive officers and directors of public health should:​

• regularly brief elected members on the local prevalence of obesity, the health risks and the local factors that may have an impact​

• help elected members identify what they can do to ensure obesity prevention is integrated across the breadth of council strategies and plans.

• Directors of public health should seek to secure high-level commitment to long-term, integrated action on obesity, as part of the joint health and wellbeing strategy. This includes:

• local indicators and targets being established collaboratively with all partners
  ensuring the strategy defines long-term goals and also includes short and intermediate measures​

• cross-sector and two-tier (as appropriate) coordination and communication between transport, planning and leisure services at strategic level and better involvement of local communities in each of these policy areas​

• ensuring performance management focuses on processes that support effective partnership working as well as measuring outputs and outcomes​

• ensuring the strategy on obesity is reviewed regularly (for example, every 3 to 5 years),​

• based on needs identified in joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs) and mapping of local assets.

• Leaders of local voluntary and community organisations should ensure that the local approach to obesity:

• fully engages and addresses marginalised groups at particular risk of obesity
• addresses inequalities in obesity and associated diseases.

• All clinical commissioning groups should be encouraged to identify an obesity or public health lead to work with the public health team on joint approaches to tackling obesity.​

• See also local authorities and the NHS as exemplars of good practice in this pathway.

​

​

​