Since September 2020, health education has been a statutory requirement for schools. , Children and young people may themselves recognise the benefits of being a healthy weight and some identify they need help to make healthy choices to stay healthy, happy and well. Growing healthily and maintaining a healthy weight throughout childhood is important for physical, social and mental wellbeing and readiness to learn. Ī child’s weight category affects their health and wellbeing. Additionally, children living with obesity are 5 times more likely to become adults living with obesity. Very overweight children are also more likely to suffer from dental caries, type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties and bone and joint problems and experience mental health problems such as depression, poor mental well-being, bullying and weight stigma. Children identified as very overweight are more likely to be ill, be absent from school due to illness, experience health-related limitations and require more medical care than children identified as a healthy weight. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities ( OHID) encourages all conversations and correspondence with parents in relation to their child’s weight status to use the more acceptable term ‘very overweight’ instead. While the use of the word obese is a clinical classification, the sensitivity and stigma around using this term is acknowledged. The term ‘very overweight’ refers to the clinical weight status ‘obese’. There are significant inequalities in terms of very overweight prevalence in children from the most deprived compared with least deprived areas, and between different children from different ethnic groups. More than 1 in 5 children aged 4 to 5 years and more than 1 in 3 aged 10 to 11 years are overweight or obese (22.3% and 37.8% respectively). Though the 2021 to 2022 NCMP annual report showed a decrease in child obesity prevalence in 2021 to 2022 compared to 2020 to 2021, prevalence remains higher than any year prior to the pandemic (2006 to 2007, to 2019 to 2020). The overall change in prevalence levels has also been relatively small each year, with the exception of the unprecedented rise seen in the 2020 to 2021 NCMP annual report which showed an increase of around 4.5%. It also provides the opportunity to raise parents’ awareness of overweight and obesity, its consequences and healthy lifestyle choices.Īlthough most children in reception and year 6 are a healthy weight, the NCMP data consistently shows that prevalence of obesity doubles between reception year and year 6 (from around 10% to around 20%). This guidance provides information for school leaders, staff and governing bodies on key tasks that schools can help with to ensure the programme runs smoothly.ĭelivering the NCMP provides vital information that enables local authorities and their partners to plan for and invest in key services to tackle obesity and its wider determinants. Support from schools is crucial to delivering the NCMP. Over 99% (17,000) of eligible state-maintained schools across England, including academies, usually participate in the NCMP. The National Child Measurement Programme ( NCMP), also known as the School Height and Weight Checks, is a mandated annual programme delivered by local authorities, which involves measuring the height and weight of all school children in reception and year 6. Produced by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, part of the Department of Health and Social Care.
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