Health leaders say more focus needed to tackle childhood obesity in Staffordshire

Health officials in Staffordshire say there needs to be a renewed focus locally to tackle the number of children in the county that are overweight.

It comes as new figures are published by the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities showing the latest trends associated with the prevalence of obesity among Reception to Year 6 age children in Staffordshire.

Stoke-on-Trent has the most concerning picture with obesity increasing across the board and significantly higher than the England average,

Dr Steve Fawcett is the Medical Director at the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board.

"The key bit of this is we need to do more focus work." he said.

"A lot of this is about health inequality - and about us being able to focus work in terms of healthy eating, about exercise, about lifestyle, to these groups.

"Now, the health services have undergone a fairly major transformation in the last six months, as we've moved across from the old NHS commissioners into something called the Integrated Care Board and Integrated Care System, and I think one of the one of the key missions for this new organisation is population health improvement."

"We've got more to do. And we need to do it"

"I think we're working quite closely with our local authority colleagues and schools, in terms of of trying to get the messages across, but I think the challenge is right." said Dr Fawcett.

"The issue really here is obesity it carries ill health and a health burden for these children all the way through their lives and that will play out in terms of diabetes, heart disease, joint issues, and so forth. So we need to be working really hard about it, because it's not a complicated message - it's about healthy eating, about smaller portions. It's about avoiding sugary foods is about eating more vegetables is about getting more exercise."

"We need to work hard on making sure that people are supported to make those choices and about trying to make sure they're aware of where they can get solid advice and practical guidance.

"It's absolutely about engaging with the parents and making them more aware. If you're coming into reception then clearly it's not a school related health challenge. It's about getting to the parents, when they're, two, three and four, and making sure that they're aware and raising educational awareness among parents about healthy eating and the risks of obesity to their children."

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