Birmingham plans to test its powers to influence the upstream, social and economic determinants of health to shift towards a healthier food and physical activity economy and environment through planning powers and apprenticeships and employment training.
The Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and administered by the Local Government Association. Public Health England is also providing expert support and advice.
Progress
- Toolkit: Responses from toolkit consultation reviewed and findings to be delivered to Cabinet. Summary to be written. Recently spoke at Birmingham City University about toolkit, lots of interest, valuable connections made and students are keen for further information.
- Spiral Curriculum: curriculum has been drafted by a commissioned provider along with an online learning platform to be rolled out next quarter. Programme being trialled with a number apprentices and focus groups will be set up to gather feedback. Evaluation process in collaboration with Birmingham City University in progress.
- Birmingham Basket: have been working with a market research company to gain insight on data for the basket.
Challenges
- Getting the toolkit embedded into local planning policy
- Increasing signups for spiral curriculum a challenge
- Difficultly in encouraging Apprenticeship and Learning and Skills Providers to adopt the curriculum in their programmes
- Capacity, although new food team should help
Learnings
- Reaching out to stakeholders across the city for support has been valuable
- A shorter consultation for the toolkit could have led to a higher response rate
- Despite significant impact of COVID-19, it has still been possible to deliver on outcomes
Next steps
- Revised toolkit to be published, accompanied by a ‘We asked, you said, we did’ document
- Lever internal planning department to embed and enact Healthier City planning toolkit into the Birmingham Development Plan
- Evaluation process to be deployed alongside spiral curriculum programme on online learning portal
- Use qualitative exploration work to make recommendations to support businesses in making economically viable healthy food offers