The presentations from the Birmingham Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Engagement Event on the 21st March 2019.

1. Enabling Healthy Weight
in Our City
An overview of the challenge of childhood obesity in
Birmingham

2. PAGE 2

3. PAGE 3

4. PAGE 4

5. What do we know works?

6. Focusing on the Drivers of Obesity (Foresight)
PAGE 6

7. Turning The Tide: A Whole System Approach
PAGE 7
No single action will turn the tide of
obesity.
A whole system approach is about
taking action at every level of the city
and by a wide range of organisations
and individuals across the public,
private and voluntary and community
sector.
Turning the tide requires active learning
and reflection and willingness to change
and evolve our response.
Lots of benefits for everyone beyond
obesity.

8. PAGE 8

9. PHE/NICE Evidence Based Interventions
PAGE 9
PRINCIPLES
Community-Centred
Co-produced
Sustainable
Learning & Evolving

10. Opportunities to Act Across the Lifecourse
PAGE 10
Primary
Secondary
Residential &
Domicilary Care
Employer Led Action on Mental
Health & Wellbeing at Work
Healthy Schools
& Youth
Services
Early Years
Centres
Diabetes Prevention Programme
Societal Narrative about Food, Activity & Weight Issues
Health Improving & Enabling Physical Environments
NHS Health Checks
Tertiary Weight Loss Support Interventions inc. Surgery
FAMILY & CARERS

11. Moving to Whole System
Approach to Obesity

12. Our Vision for
Birmingham
Birmingham – a city of growth where every child,
citizen and place matters
•Birmingham is an entrepreneurial city to learn,
work and invest in
•Birmingham is an aspirational city to grow up in
•Birmingham is a fulfilling city to age well in
•Birmingham is a great city to live in
•Birmingham residents gain the maximum benefit
from hosting the Commonwealth Games
PAGE 12

13. FOOD &
NUTRITION
• Knowledge
• Appetite to change
• Perceived
risk/cost
• Benefits of
change
• Skills/Capacity
• Breastfeeding & Weaning
• Access to ingredients
• Access to fast food
• Social norms
PAGE 13

14. LEARNING FROM OTHERS
 Fast Food license restrictions (supplementary
planning guidelines e.g. LBBD)
 Healthy Food Standards in Public Sector (e.g.
PHE)
 Healthy Offer in Food Retail
• Hot food offer (e.g.
CIEH)
• Shop retail offer (e.g.
NHS)
 Healthy Weaning Support
 Breastfeeding Friendly Communities (e.g
LBBD)
 Fresh food deserts (e.g. LBNewham)
 Mass Communication (e.g. Change4Life)
INNOVATION SPACE?
 Create a positive food economy
• Inclusive growth
encourages healthy
food business
• Healthy food
business is
sustainable in every
community
• Healthy food
business includes
creation (vertical
farming) as well as
retail offer
FOOD & NUTRITION
PAGE 14

15. PHYSICAL
ACTIVITY
• Knowledge
• Appetite to change
• Perceived
risk/cost
• Benefits of
change
• Skill/Capacity
• Confidence
• Safety
• Access to support
• Social norms
PAGE 15

16. LEARNING FROM OTHERS
 Planning out obesity, building in
active travel (e.g. TCPA)
 Brief advice for physical activity
(e.g. PHE clinical champions)
 Green Space Activation (e.g. TCV
Green Gyms)
 Active travel interventions for
schools, like Walking Bus
 Tailored leisure offer for targeted
groups, specialist support for those
with most complex challenges.
 Mass communication campaigns
(e.g Active10)
INNOVATION SPACE?
 Create a walking and cycling
social norm in Birmingham?
 Pilot incentivisation of active
travel by employers
 Maximise potential of physical
activity for health through brief
advice and social prescribing
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
PAGE 16

17.  Fast food and access to
parks are strong narratives
 Sense of the cause is
external to the individual
choice.
 Birmingham has more public
green space than most other
cities
 Birmingham has a lower
density of fast food retail
shops than most other cities.
 Birmingham has higher rates
of obesity than some other
cities.
COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES
PAGE 17
DISCONNECT BETWEEN
PERCEPTION OF DRIVERS &
DATA PICTURE
“because I can’tstop them eatingrubbish at schoolbut at home it’sup to me”[mother of 4]
“It’s so cheap and
it’s a treat. I think I
only have them for
the kids but .. I
have them too”.
[Mother of 4]
“we don’t plan them. If it’s getting late or I’ve got
nothing in.... its nearer than the shop” [Female mid-
40s, mum of 4, kids left home]

18. Where we’re heading next
 Birmingham Health and Wellbeing Board are focusing on
childhood obesity as one of two priorities in 2019/20 for
partnership action, the other area is health inequalities.
 Birmingham City Council is consulting on a Green Paper on
Public Health Priorities, this includes a priority on childhood
obesity and is an opportunity for citizens and stakeholders to
shape our priorities for the next three years.
 Developing a Health Inequalities Framework for Birmingham
from Winter 2019.
PAGE 18

19. PAGE 19

20. USE IT! Community Research
– What We Have Done So Far?
 Dr Emma Frew, Health Economics
 Working with: Dr Karolina Medwecka-Piasecka (European and
International Affairs), Dr Sara Hasson (Centre for Urban and Regional
Studies), Dr Lisa Goodson (Institute for Research into Superdiversity)

21. Aims of USE-IT! Community Research
 Gathering
information from
the community
about issues that
are important to
people and what
problems people
feel their
community faces
 Encouraging
sustainable
development by
encouraging
developers to
think of local
people and how
they will benefit
from regeneration

22. Community Research Training – What We
Have Done So Far?
For discovery phase:
Recruited 5 trained community researchers:
• Vast majority from the USE-IT
area
• Various ages
• Diversity of ethnic backgrounds
and length of settlement
• Different employment status
and occupations
• Lots of ideas, skills and
talents

23. Key insights (so far):
Socialisation (using food
outlets as social venues)
Green space (lack of use)
Misleading
packaging
Role of early years/school
settings (education programmes)
Religious
values(availability of halal
meat)
Social norms (not ‘cool’ to
cycle in park, friends eat chips)
Availability of HFSS
(affordability, perception that it’s
everywhere, portion sizes)
Desire to be healthy

24. Thank you
 Community researchers
 Dr Karolina Medwecka-Piasecka (European and
International Affairs)
 Lisa Goodson (Institute for Research into
Superdiversity)
 Sara Hassan (Geography & Earth Sciences)
@USEITUIA@USEITUIA

25. WHAT ARE OUR
COMMUNITIES
TELLING US?

26. Photovoice. Healthy is Hard
 I like veg snack but
they’re expensive.
They really
don’t make it
easy
 Fruit is NEVER on
TV. It’s ALWAYS
biscuits or crisps
 The claims they make
– they treat us like
fools

27. Photo voice. Eating Out
My daughter uses
Uber and likes to
get Mcdonald’s
delivered. HER
generation like
having food
delivered to the
door

28. Photo Voice. Food at Home
 It’s hard being the only cook in
the house
 I usually go for promotions –
anything that says Buy One get
One Free