Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

You are here:

Delivering the obesity PSA

  • Last modified date:
    3 September 2007

Reducing obesity is a key priority for the Government and a comprehensive programme to tackle obesity in the population is currently underway.

The White Paper sets out a comprehensive plan of action on physical activity, diet, personalised support, information and curbs on marketing, which gives a strong foundation for tackling obesity. The White Paper delivery plan (Delivering Choosing Health), together with discrete plans focusing on nutrition (Choosing a Better Diet) and Physical Activity (Choosing Activity) set out how the White Paper commitments will be delivered.

 The Department has a range of ongoing initiatives to tackle obesity in children and adults. These are listed below:

NICE guidance

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published Guidance on the prevention, identification, assessment and management of overweight and obesity in adults and children in December 2006.

The guidance makes a series of recommendations covering the NHS, local authorities and partners, early-years settings, schools, workplaces, self-help, commercial and community settings.

These recommendations are practical and very much in line with our cross-Government programme on obesity.

It is the first integrated clinical and public health guidance to be published by NICE and includes a focus on prevention in addition to clinical intervention, recognising that obesity is a complex problem.

The Department of Health strongly encourages professionals from NHS, local authorities and partners, early-years settings, schools, workplaces, self-help, commercial and community settings to read this guidance and build the recommendations into their local planning strategies.

The NICE guidance on obesity can be downloaded using the link below.

Obesity Care Pathway and Your Weight, Your Health

This comprehensive package includes materials for health professionals as well as information to be given to patients. It includes Obesity Care Pathways for adults and children and a supporting booklet with detailed information for health professionals. In addition, there are tools to help GPs raise the rather sensitive issue of weight opportunistically with both adults and children.

For guidance on food portion sizes to lose weight, download the booklet "So you want to lose weight ... for good" from the British Heart Foundation

Obesity toolkit

The National Heart Forum has updated its toolkit “Lightening the Load: tackling overweight and obesity” produced in association with the Faculty of Public Health and Department of Health.  The toolkit, for developing local strategies to prevent and tackle overweight and obesity in children and adults is aimed at local teams involved in planning and coordinating strategies. The primary purpose of the toolkit is to provide a framework for the development of a comprehensive local strategy through primary care, local government and local partnerships.  It provides a comprehensive range of tools and signposts the reader to relevant sources of information on evidence and effectiveness.  Originally produced in 2006, the latest version has been updated to reflect the NICE guidance on obesity published in December 2006. 

Guidance for measuring childhood obesity

Achieving the PSA target relies on effective action both nationally and locally by different agencies working together. Nationally, progress on meeting the target is being tracked through the Health Survey for England. But there is no existing comprehensive and reliable data at local level on child obesity.

Present specific action on diet and physical activity

Obesity Bulletin

This bulletin updates on the Obesity PSA target and delivery strategy, and highlights good practice. The Obesity Bulletin will be published twice yearly as part of the government's obesity programme.

Why your child's weight matters

The Government has developed a booklet for parents: “Why your child’s weight matters”, which includes information on the National Child Measurement Programme, why maintaining a healthy weight is important, and the steps that parents can take to help their family develop a healthy lifestyle.

Access keys