Children & Young People

Our three NHS Boards are working together to provide services that meet the National Weight Management Service Delivery Standards for children and young people, alongside effective prevention initiatives. In doing so, we aim to support all families across the East of Scotland to reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Partners are working collaboratively with health visitors and school nursing teams to engage with children and their families from the outset. Child healthy weight interventions will also build on existing good practice across Scotland.

Implementing the National Service Delivery Standards

Our three NHS Boards are working together – with the support of our programme team – to implement the National Children and Young People Weight Management Service Delivery Standards, published in 2019 by Public Health Scotland. The purpose of these standards is to ensure a consistent, equitable and evidence-based approach to the treatment of overweight and obesity for children and young people up to the age of 18, across weight management services. Once implemented, the focus will then be on maintaining these standards and continuously improving local services, forming part of business as usual.

Prevention Initiatives

Outdoor advertising

Research has shown that outdoor advertising of foods high in salt, sugar and fats (HSSF) in areas of high footfall for children and young people has an impact on their dietary choices. Current regulations stipulate that HSSF foods may not be advertised within 100 meters of a space designed for and frequented by children and young people. We are reviewing current outdoor advertising near schools to measure compliance with this regulation. In doing so, we can understand its efficacy and develop strategies to inform future advertising development around schools.

Health visitor data

27-30 month data collected by Health Visitors can be an early indicator of the support needed to help families across the region, when planning their diet. By exploring and understanding the quality and completeness of health visitor data, we hope to be able to inform future commissioning of support services.

Education and early years

Sport and exercise opportunities, alongside good conversations around food, have a positive impact on the diet and healthy weight of young people. We are therefore working with education and early years’ colleagues to understand the extracurricular activities which are currently available and how we can support. This will include looking to increase participation in existing initiatives and enable the development of new services.

Please note that we are currently reviewing these projects and outlining how to progress, with research having been paused as a result of COVID-19.

Get in Touch

To find out more about our work or get involved, please contact:

Joanna Teece, Project Manager
Email: Joanna.Teece@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk 
Phone: 07970 035159