Childhood Obesity in the United Kingdom 85overall aim of the programme was to become a city where all people are
healthier, feel well, and are empowered to take responsibility for their health.
The lessons learnt from this programme were that family structure is a key
driver of behaviour. There is a major disparity between claimed and actual
behaviour and many parents believe they are already doing many of the
desired behaviours and don’t see the need to do more of them. Many of the
behaviours identified in the Change4Life programme (portion size, snacking,
fat content) were prevalent in the target wards. Some issues are more readily
recognised as problems by parents (e.g., fat content). In terms of physical
activity, there is a need to allay perceptions around safety in public
spaces. There is a lot of importance placed on cost and convenience – reliance
on the freezer came through as a strong theme in the research. The
competition, and services that are working well, recognised the need to look
after and provide benefits for the parent as well as the child. Many of the
parents reported they cooked but in reality were simply heating up frozen food
or ready meals.
PhunkyFoods
The PhunkyFoods mission is aimed to improve the dietary and physical
activity habits of young children (aged 2-11 years) across the UK by helping
to create supportive learning environments for health in early year’s settings
and primary schools. Rapid increases in childhood obesity prevalence means
that we must help empower children, alongside their families and
communities, to take control over their wellbeing to enable them to live
longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives. The PhunkyFoods Programme aims
to help early years settings and primary schools to deliver a whole-school
approach to healthy lifestyles and to engage with all pupils, and their families,
in promoting tangible health behaviour changes in a fun, lively and positive
manner. As well as over 400 curriculums linked lesson plans, a number of
parent and pupil workshops and class and school assemblies are conducted. As
part of the phunkyfoods initiative, all staff were provided with the training
they need to deliver top quality, fun healthy lifestyles activities in their setting.
There was a range of training options including innovative training films. A
fabulous resource box containing everything a setting will need to run the
programme including large eat-well guide floor mat, food photo cards,