Obesity Abstracts

Background: The Manchester Healthy Weight Project Team were established in September 2018, in response to rising levels of severe obesity across Manchester and a Serious Case Review where a child in Manchester died at the aged 13 years old from a heart condition exacerbated by morbid obesity.

The team includes a dietitian, healthy weight project nurses and a healthy weight project co-ordinator. The team are part of Children’s Community Health Service within the Manchester Local Care Organisation and work alongside key partners such as GPs, Schools, Children’s Social Care School Health Nurses and Health Visitors.

Methods: The team work with reception-aged children who are identified as severely obese through the National Child Measurement Programme. Parents/carers are pro-actively contacted by the team following their height and weight measurement in school, and are offered individualised weight management support within their home or the school setting. Families are provided with advice around healthy eating, physical activity and behaviour change and are signposted to physical activity opportunities in the community. A holistic approach to supporting the family is undertaken through the completion of Early Help Assessments with parents consent.

Frequency of contact with the service over a 12 month period is decided between the parent and the health care professional, allowing for greater flexibility for the families of Manchester to access weight management support. Children’s height and weight is measured between monthly and three monthly intervals depending on a child’s progress towards a healthy BMI centile range.

Engagement outcomes: Within the first 6 months of the project, we achieved a 89% engagement rate following our pro-active phone calls, an increase from the 5% achieved the previous year by the tier 2 weight management service (unpublished data). In a best practice example by the Wirral, only 19% of parents of reception aged children who were identified as very overweight, requested to be referred to a weight management service following a pro-active phone call from the School Nursing Service (Hughes & Timpson, 2014).

Further outcomes: Further outcomes collected are BMI SDS, Total-SDQ score, change in dietary and physical activity behaviour and parent/carer and child feedback.