4. What are the Welsh Government’s priorities for tackling childhood obesity in Wales? OAQ(5)0187(HWS)

Our priority is to take a preventative approach to tackle childhood obesity. We do this through a range of approaches, including campaigns, programmes and legislation.

Examples include our Active Journeys programme, the Healthy Child Wales programmes and Public Health Wales’s 10 Steps to a Healthy Weight campaign.

Thank you, Minister. The Cwm Taf health board area has the worst childhood obesity rates in Wales. Over one in four children in my constituency of Cynon Valley is obese, and, as well as posing health challenges, we know that this also impacts on both their social and educational lives. Innovative and inclusive practices like the daily mile can encourage healthy activity, and I know that you and the education Secretary wrote a letter to primary schools in January encouraging take-up of this. What progress has there been on this issue?

We have seen a large number of schools expressing a lot of interest in the daily mile scheme and accessing the online bilingual resources that we have. I don’t want to quote a number yet because, when we get to a landmark number, I’d like to make an announcement then, but I will say that there has been great interest in this scheme, and those schools that are doing it are reporting that they’re already seeing a difference in behaviour in class and so on. It’s very popular amongst teachers themselves, and also the children, and amongst parents as well. I’ve been working, as you say, with the education Minister to explore how we can roll out other things within the school environment as well, and one new programme that I’m very excited about, which has been built up over a period of time with pilot projects, has been the school holiday enrichment programme, which will be taking place in schools right across Wales over the course of this summer. That’s a really fantastic opportunity to give children the opportunity to have a healthy meal during the day during the holiday, but also to address things like holiday learning loss, because we know that some pupils return to school after the end of summer holidays and actually have slipped behind in their learning and so on. But the school holiday enrichment programme is really about making the school environment a fun environment to spend time in over the summer, and also to keep up your learning and to have access to a healthy meal and fun activities.

This is really great news. It’s very positive, and the daily mile is a very useful tool. However, let’s be frank, we’ve had endless debates in this Chamber about the risk of obesity, about how it’s becoming the public health challenge of the future, about all of the consequences of being too overweight for people, especially in their later life, and where we’ve got to stop it is with the young children. So, my concern is that, whilst you’re encouraging schools to take up these kinds of options, while you’re encouraging these holiday activities, what I think we need to put into place, and what I was wondering was whether you’ve had many discussions with the Cabinet Secretary for Education along these lines about making it not optional and not boring. We need to have exercise in schools that children have to undertake but that is fun, isn’t judgmental. It can be dancing to One Direction; it doesn’t matter, as they’re still getting fit. I think that it’s really important that you do not give schools the opportunity to opt out of some of this stuff, because it is these kids who, as Vikki’s mentioned, are growing up and will have all of those health problems in the future, and I think we’ve got to be really, really strong on this subject.

Thank you very much, and this is the subject of ongoing discussions that I am having with the education Minister as well. It’s worth noting that, actually, nearly three quarters of four to five-year-olds are of a healthy weight. However, we want to concentrate our efforts on the remaining quarter who aren’t of a healthy weight. Levels of obesity amongst children has levelled off in recent years, but, again, things needs to be moving in the right direction.

It’s important to note, as well, that we must support children who are already overweight at a young age, and I’m really pleased that Public Health Wales has been working with health boards and has now developed an agreed service specification for level 3 services for childhood obesity. So, this will help us in terms of the efforts we’re making to make a fully integrated obesity service at all tiers of support in Wales. So, I think that this is an exciting, new and important step forward in terms of supporting children who are already overweight. If we take action at an early age, then, certainly, they can look forward to being of a healthy weight as adults.