Guide to: Childhood Obesity Strategy

Download the PDF

The Government first released Childhood Obesity: a plan for action in August 2016, aiming to significantly reduce the rate of obesity among young people in England over the following ten years.

FACT: Did you know? Nearly a quarter of children in England are obese or overweight by the time they start primary school

Within two years, however, an update to the plan was published following heavy criticism of the original.

Proposals in the original strategy:

After its publication, the report was criticised by experts including the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) for focusing largely on primary-age children and failing to remove restrictions on advertising and promotional deals on junk food, despite Public Health England’s advice that this would be the most effective way to reduce obesity.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood said the strategy ignored the ‘vital role’ of physical activity, while Pinki Sahota, professor of nutrition and childhood obesity at Leeds Beckett University and chair of the Association for the Study of Obesity, said the plan lacked ‘bold actions’ and pointed out that the new guidelines for early years food would not be mandatory.

Despite some sections of industry meeting the aim to reduce sugar in products by 5 per cent in the year after the plan was published, overall the goal was not achieved.

In June 2018, the Government added a second chapter to the strategy, citing a new national ambition to halve childhood obesity and reduce the gap between children from the most and least deprived areas by 2030, as it emerged that children from deprived areas are more than twice as likely to be overweight.

The second chapter was better received, with the OHA and British Dietetic Association welcoming the new measures. However, both organisations urged the Government to take ‘swift action’ to make its commitments a reality.

Proposals in the second chapter:

Advertising and promotions