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PCTs take lead in tackling childhood obesity
PCTs take lead in tackling childhood obesity
With nearly one in three children starting secondary school either overweight or obese, three primary care trusts have commissioned a unique healthy eating programme to tackle the problem.
Three PCTs – Manchester, Heart of Birmingham, Havering and Liverpool – are piloting a dedicated healthy eating and physical exercise programme called PhunkyFoods which is being used by thousands of pupils across 517 UK primary schools.
Havering PCT has also commissioned PhunkyFoods for 35 schools, the majority of their education area.
The curriculum-based programme, developed by nutrition expert Purely Nutrition, is supported by a heavyweight consortium that includes Northern Foods, Nestlé and Cargill.
A recent milestone sees South West Essex PCT rolling it out across its 150 schools – the first time a PCT has provided a bespoke nutritional teaching course independent of the school curriculum.
PhunkyFoods offers weekly lesson plans for each primary school year group. Through art, drama, music, play and hands-on experience with food, children learn key healthy eating and physical activity messages in a light hearted and fun manner.
Recently published research from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that PhunkyFoods is "popular with the whole school community and clearly helps expand, embed and enhance health-related teaching, through increasing school staff competence and confidence, complementing other initiatives and positively impacting on pupil knowledge, attitudes and behaviour."
Dr Jennie Cockroft, director of nutrition at PhunkyFoods, added: "PCTs are increasingly responsible for healthy eating and physical exercise in schools – PhunkyFoods is an ideal way for them to deliver in these key areas without the burden of developing their own programmes.
"The NFER research clearly demonstrates the benefits to schools, teachers and pupils across a range of important indicators as PCTs learn about PhunkyFoods and how it can make a substantial contribution to their childhood health work."
The scheme has been welcomed by participating schools as a way of meeting the government's requirement to work towards 'Healthy School' status by 2009, with a target of 75 per cent of schools attaining healthy school status by 2009.
Melody Williams, head of health improvement for children and young people at South West Essex PCT, the first care trust in the country to roll out the programme across all its schools, said: "PhunkyFoods is a great way of getting schools and individual teachers working together to help address the growing issue of childhood obesity.
"The programme has amassed a strong track record in delivering real health benefits without placing undue pressure on teachers or the curriculum and we look forward to reaping the benefits."
Posted on 19th January 2009
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