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Obesity Review Group meeting note – 25 June 2012

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The Obesity Review Group met on Monday 25 June at Board Room, Richmond House, Department of Health. The meeting was chaired by Anne Milton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health.  Attached below are a summary of the meeting notes and actions.

Obesity Review Group 25 June 2012 – Agenda (PDF, 24K)

Attendees

Dr Jessica Allen
Prof Paul Aveyard
Will Blandamer
John Byrne
Catherine Collins
Prof Chris Drinkwater
Prof David Haslam
Prof Andrew Hill
Dr Susan Jebb
Melanie Leech
Prof Ian Macdonald
Andrew Opie
Sanjay Pathak
Dr John Radford
Dr Harry Rutter (invited)
Prof Terence Stephenson
Alison Williams (for Carolyn Garland)
Joe Williams (for Philip Insall)

Apologies

Sue Davies
Prof Nick Finer
Dr Iain Frame
Zoe Hellman
Paul Lincoln
Stella Manzie
Prof Marie Murphy
Cllr David Rogers
Cal Shaw
Prof Jane Wardle

Officials in attendance

Richard Cienciala
Liz Woodeson
Zoë Richardson
Helen Hampton

Discussion

1.    The Chair welcomed attendees and invited comments on the proposals for the Group’s priorities over the next three years (Paper 1: PDF, 32K). Members were content with the overall proposals and to hold a further meeting in the autumn. The Group discussed a number of ideas for specific areas of focus within this framework, including addressing inequalities and embedding action on obesity within strategies for tackling other conditions.

2.    Richard Cienciala, Deputy Director for Health and Wellbeing, gave a presentation on current and planned national action that could help inform local commissioning of obesity interventions (Paper 2: PDF, 42K). There was a wide-ranging discussion, with over-arching themes including:

  • the opportunities and challenges around ensuring that guidance is robust and is implemented where appropriate
  • the importance of ensuring that contracts encourage the delivery of appropriate outcomes by service providers, particularly in terms of weight management
  • the benefits of enabling local areas to take a ‘joined up’ approach in the context of cost pressures and local partners’ sometimes variable rates of transition towards the new arrangements for public health
  • the importance of healthcare professionals engaging in local care pathways, with points raised around training, incentivisation, and achieving the right balance in terms of the medicalisation of obesity

3.    Members discussed the importance of having examples of “what good looks like” at the local level and where different partners are playing their full part. It was agreed that the Group would build on this initial discussion about commissioning by inviting the chief executive of Public Health England to its next meeting to consider how the new organisation can best support local areas in tackling obesity.

4.    The Group agreed that this discussion could be usefully informed by NICE guidance that is currently in development, expertise from the Institute of Health Equity, and insights from local areas which have taken forward sustained and innovative obesity strategies, such as Rotherham.

5.    Zoë Richardson gave a presentation on the Change4Life “Supermeals” campaign and plans for a further campaign on healthy eating in 2013 (Paper 3: PDF, 27K). The discussion included the following points:

  • recognition that campaigns are often most powerful when national and local activities are aligned and reinforce each other, with advance notice of national plans key to achieving this
  • the potential for national campaigns to shift social norms, as well as addressing individual behaviour change directly
  • the relative benefits of separate campaigns around healthy eating and physical activity, or more integrated campaigns. The evidence on this point was not conclusive and members agreed that it would be important to continue to focus on both areas
  • the importance of cross-Government working to reinforce messages, particularly in the context of physical activity

6.    The Chair thanked members for their constructive contributions and invited the Group to submit any further thoughts to the team at the Department of Health.

Actions

  • Action: Members to send any further thoughts on any of the discussions to the Department of Health
  • Action: Department of Health to develop plans for future meetings in line with the overarching framework agreed by the Group and additional comments provided, and to reflect the discussion outlined in paragraph 4
  • Action: Department of Health to set out rationale for BMI thresholds as part of the January meeting

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