Case studies

A programme supporting minority ethnic women during and after pregnancy is just one of Coventry City Council’s early interventions which are having a positive impact on healthy choices. 

A decision to sign up to the Healthy Weight Declaration has acted as a catalyst for action on obesity for Devon County Council and other partners and businesses across the county.

Hull’s new approach to child obesity rests on the premise that unhealthy weight is not just a public health problem but cuts across all the council’s areas of responsibility.

When Lincolnshire County Council began to map the complex factors that lead to childhood obesity; from food availability and marketing, transport choices and social norms to activity levels and deprivation, the intricate diagram of causal loops was a powerful visual illustration that a whole systems approach was necessary.

A pilot in one of the most deprived ward’s in Portsmouth will focus on the environmental drivers of obesity and bring together work across the council, from housing, transport and education to planning and public health.

A new health and wellbeing service for children and families will embed the insights learnt from a three-year pilot aimed at tackling childhood obesity in one of the most deprived wards.

Planning guidance which restricts the number of hot food takeaways in areas with high childhood obesity is part of South Tyneside Council’s whole systems approach to the problem of excess weight.

Increasing physical activity among children and young people is a central goal of Southwark Council’s holistic approach to tackling child obesity. From planning development, designing transport to commissioning leisure services with specific health outputs, the promotion of more active lifestyles is a strategic aim.

Wigan commissions leisure services to provide an integrated health and wellbeing offering which makes full use of the community assets that families trust most - schools and Start Well Family Centres - as well as providing weight management services for children and young people.

In January 2017 and from September 2019, Islington Council partnered with social enterprise Behaviour Change to pilot innovative new signage, funded by Mars Wrigley, to help tackle the issue of littered gum in known hotspots such as shopping centres, train stations and transport hubs.