Putting families at the heart of healthy lifestyle support in the Borders

In Scotland, the rates of overweight and obesity for both children and young people are among the highest in the developed world.

The need to halt and reverse the rising trend in childhood obesity has become a priority for Scotland, sparking the release of national standards in 2019 for the delivery of tier 2 and 3 weight management services for children and young people.

To deliver a new service which meets these national standards, the child healthy weight team at NHS Borders are working with a range of local stakeholders to adopt a joined-up approach.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the team are now at 70% completion of the standards and have built their new Fit4Fun Families service from scratch.

Design of the service has included the development of family focused sessions, a child healthy weight referral pathway, toolkit and toolkit training for professionals.

Toolkit training ensures that all local practitioners working directly with young people and their families are aware of the complexity of childhood obesity, feel confident to raise the issue, do everything they can to reduce stigma and signpost families on to the right support.

Over the past few months, 51 professionals – including Health Visitors, School Nurses and Healthcare Support Workers – have received toolkit training. They have also participated in training to support young people to get a good night’s sleep, make and maintain behaviour change, and provide trauma informed care.

This further raised awareness of NHS Borders’ new Fit4Fun Families child healthy weight programme which will launch shortly and supports families to make positive lifestyle changes – from being active, to eating well and working towards personal goals.

Fit4Fun sessions will be delivered by specialist Dietitians and Community Food Workers, virtually or face-to-face in an individual or group setting depending on requirements.

This will give families greater flexibility and allow the team to tailor sessions to their specific needs, ensuring young people get the most out of taking part.

To ensure young people are still able to participate in the physical activity element of the programme virtually, videos have been filmed by the health coaches at Live Borders and will be offered to families to help them to keep active.

Jenny Reid, Child Healthy Weight Lead at NHS Borders, said: “We are really proud of our collaborative approach to designing Fit4Fun Families here in the Scottish Borders. In response to consultation with partners, the toolkit and toolkit training were developed – and have been warmly received by professionals.

“By continuing to work together we are confident that our new programmes will provide children and young people with the support they need.”

For further information on the service or the toolkit, please contact Jenny.

To find out more about our work to improve the diet and healthy weight support available for families, please visit our Children and Young People page.