4. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales'

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:00 pm on 22 October 2019.

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Photo of Angela Burns Angela Burns Conservative 3:00, 22 October 2019

There are some very good points that you make in this, but I would like to make a couple of my own. The first is that at no point in this document do you actually follow a line that says that people have a personal responsibility. And I can say this as someone who's had more than her fair share of ill health over the last few years, and I am no sylph, regrettably, but I am fully aware that in order to get truly well, I have to take myself in hand. We all know that. We don't smoke, we need to have more exercise, and we need to control what we eat. And in your statement, there's very little reference to that; it's all about what you can do, communities can do, GPs can do. But I do think that somewhere along here there needs to be a slight call to action on the public, that we also try to do our bit to control what we weigh and understand what impact not controlling what we eat is going to have on our long-term health outcomes. It's an honesty agenda, and we are very, very scared at times, I think, of being quite straightforward with people.

You talk a lot about prevention, and I think there is an awful lot of very good prevention work going on, and particularly in schools through the healthy eating initiatives. But of course, being a healthy weight isn't just about what you put in your mouth; it is about the exercise that you take and your attitudes to the way you go out and live your life. And I wondered if you can clarify for us what discussions you have had with the Minister for Education about increasing the amount of time that children have within their school day to spend on sports, because over the last decade, the amount of time that children have had in the playground—and I've done the FOIs, I've had all the answers back—has slowly been reducing. There may have been a step change in the last year, because I haven't checked in the last year, but it needs more than just an extra five minutes a day or five minutes a week. So, what discussions have you had, particularly at primary age, on ensuring that young people have that opportunity to really have inculcated into them the desire to go out and be fitter and just to enjoy it? They don't even know it's exercise, they're just playing, they're having fun. Education is absolutely key.

The food environment comments, I think, are extremely important. I think there is a real argument for widening the advertising exclusion zone around schools and to work closely with Sport Wales.

Your whole statement is called 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales'. I understand it's driving on the obesity agenda, but I couldn't stand here and not mention the fact that, particularly for our young teenagers, underweight is also a massive issue. So, I would like to ask you what steps you're taking as a Government to ensure that when promoting this agenda, what we're actually saying is, 'Let's get the right weight.' Because we have, especially our young girls, an awful lot of them who just do not eat appropriately because they are terrified of being too fat or they feel they should be following some norm that's been pushed by some celebrity. And on Instagram, I couldn't agree with you more, Minister for Education; I think Instagram is one of the great ills of the world.

On the active environment, I'm so glad to see that the Minister for housing is also here because, actually, again, in the planning, I'd like to ask you to go through what discussions you've had about how we can use the planning system to increase our recreational and sports ability and play ability in our new housing developments. Because, again, we've been through this in the past where developers have said, 'Oh, well, we've got x metres of green space', but actually it turns out to be the green grass along the sides of the pavement. That is not a sports facility where kids can play. And the other thing that developers do not do is they don't recognise the fact that parents actually quite like to have the play area where parents can see it, so that they know that their kids are safe. So, they put the play area on the other side of the village lane, away from all the houses. We want them in the middle of the houses. It's very old-fashioned, but you can look out of your window, you can see your child, your child's outside having fun and having that play. All of those small things help to contribute towards having a healthier life.

I do just want to very quickly, though, mention a couple of very good programmes that have been running. There's a fabulous one—and I'm going to get this wrong; no, it is right, it's been written down about three times—Man versus Fat. This is for men, middle aged, a bit too wide, and they go out and they play football. There is a big programme, it's running in the National Assembly, and people are losing weight by the droves. That's the kind of thing we need to be encouraging people. Middle-aged women like me, I don't want to go to a gym and face off with a gym bunny in Lycra. No, thank you. I'd much rather we come up with programmes and it's about getting the adults out there—they'll get fitter, the kids will get fitter, but it's about targeting it.

There's a fabulous programme running in London. It's called 'Mind, Exercise, Nutrition...Do it!', MEND. It's a programme that's aimed specifically at seven to 13-year-olds who are very obese, and again, it's had great successes. Minister, can you tell us what you've done to look at other initiatives that have already been proven? I saw in your programme, which I've read today, that, again, you're talking about finding best practice and making it happen throughout the whole of Wales. If you can just give us some of that information, that would be very helpful.

And, before I'm booted off the floor, may I just add about the funding? It comes back to my point about Brexit. Actually, this is a really serious issue about making us all slimmer, fitter and healthier. The saving to the NHS in the long term would be immense, and even more important, the saving to the individual. And it is within your power; you get over £16 billion a year as a Government. We're not talking big bucks, but you can spend a little bit of that money in helping local authorities to keep their gym facilities open, open their swimming pools, keep their bowling greens going, keep all their green spaces and allow them to have play equipment that can be looked after and maintained so that people actually have a great environment to go out there and to try and be fit.