Bradford Council will harness the potential of Islamic Religious Settings (IRS) and their communities as levers to tackle the cultural, and structural drivers of ethnic inequalities in childhood obesity in Bradford.
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 also providing expert support and advice.
Progress
- Toolkit: A number of new physical activity sessions added to the toolkit based on recommendations from place-based groups.
- The Trailblazer facilitated a day trip in which 50 girls and mothers were funded by JUMP to spend a day in nature in Yorkshire’s Ilkley Moor.
- Two young people from Bradford participated in the ‘Hearing the young person’s voice’ event on 26 October 2021.
- Completed all second test and learn sessions on the healthy diet and organisational change with place-based groups affiliated with IRS; physical activity second test and learn sessions near completion.
- Implementation phase: organised six hyper-local childhood obesity prevention planning sessions with place-based groups at diverse IRS
- Series of behaviour change training workshops arranged for the team to support effective delivery of the toolkit.
Challenges
- Different paces of place-based groups
- Recruiting enough IRS settings to take part in model development and piloting phases
- IRS lack resources / volunteers to implement proposed activities
- COVID-19 - programme delivery was built on logic of face-to-face interactions with individuals, communities & organisations to encourage healthy behaviours for obesity prevention IRS now starting to re-open and face to face interactions will resume in adherence with COVID-19 measures.
Learnings
- Recently published research by Born in Bradford finds COVID-19 has significantly impacted physical activity levels for children and young people living in deprived Bradford neighbourhoods
- Each place-based group is at a different stage of readiness for implementation and will need to work at a different pace post COVID-19
- Behaviour change training has been a great learning space for Bradford trailblazer team, place based groups and subject matter experts.
Next steps
- Aim to finish all second test and learn sessions with our community groups before the end of October 2021 and test the three new physical activities.
- Quality assurance and branding phase of toolkit design
- Bradford Royal Infirmary’s dietitians to revisit toolkit contents once second refinement finalised with healthy diet subject matter experts
- Ten place-based groups are organised for delivery of obesity prevention behaviours
- Place-based groups to make localised obesity prevention plans
- Start to look at putting together behavioural change survey with place-based groups for the end of Year 3.
- Integrate trailblazer into Bradford’s childhood obesity plan to support sustainability beyond the end of the project
- Scope out further funding opportunities in the Bradford District to apply and become part of mainstream obesity prevention initiatives.
- Workshop with key stakeholders to ensure robust quality assurance of toolkit contents