7.1 The chair asked colleagues from Public Health to comment on the draft Childhood obesity and sports report. Rosie Dalton-Lucas, Health and Wellbeing Manager and Jin Lim, Public Health consultant, said the report was very good and they would welcome the recommendations. They commented that there is quite a lot about the environment and this is a way of going upstream to be more preventative.
7.2 A member noted the links to the Food Strategy in the report, and then the officer update report that this is not being progressed. The member asked what happened to this. Officers undertook to get more information.
7.3 A member asked about supermarket offers; such as buy one get one free. Public Health officers reported that they have done work with supermarkets such as Tesco’s and said that they we can raise this issue when they meet again, however often they are driven by economic needs.
7.4 Clarification was sought by members on the fast food outlet planning policy and commented that they would have liked these powers to have been available for recent planning applications. Public Health officers said there are some strategic plans, and local initiates, but not a general policy. They would welcome a borough policy.
7.5 A member commented that the report was very wide ranging and had expanded beyond its original scope. In addition there was a lot of recommendations that could benefit from more focus.
7.6 A member commented on the evidence that exercise is very important for health, whatever your weight. There are cultural issues around healthy weight. There was comment on the importance at looking at other studies showing indicators of health.
7.7 Members noted the strong evidence that mothers who are overweight or obese are 10 times more likely to have overweight or obese children. There was a comment that the under 5’s are also an important group to target. Public Health officers responded that they have recently been focusing on childminders and nutrition, as well as maternal obesity.
7.8 Public Health officers were asked what happens when a child is identified as overweight of obese through the child weighing programme. Public Health officers explained that there are a number of interventions including vouchers, referral to the MEND programme and doctors. Members asked if medical conditions are detected and an officer commented that it takes time for conditions to manifest , most of the work at this stage is about prevention of later disease.
ACTION
Clarification will be sought on Southwark’s Food Strategy and fast food planning policy.
The report will be refined and slimmed down. It will then be circulated to the committee.