Cash to tackle childhood obesity

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has announced six million pounds of funding to tackle childhood obesity.
She made the commitment at an international summit on health inequalities hosted in Edinburgh.

The funding will help at least 20,000 overweight and obese children and forms a key part of the Scottish Government’s agenda for tackling health inequalities.

Health boards will be tasked with setting up family-focused healthy weight treatment programmes for children aged between five and 15.

Designed to engage children in practical and educational sessions, the programmes will promote healthy eating and physical activity and address the psychological, social and behavioural causes of weight gain.

Ms Sturgeon said: “While the growing problem of obesity - and in particular childhood obesity - is affecting all sectors of society more and more, we know that the health impacts can be a particular problem in deprived areas.

“Chronic health conditions associated with obesity such as coronary heart disease are more prevalent in deprived communities. Yet it is those who are living in less affluent areas who are more likely to find it difficult to access affordable healthy foods and have opportunities to be active.

“This funding will directly benefit overweight children and is an extremely important addition to the actions we are already taking to tackle health inequalities, such as free school meals, raising the age of cigarette sales to 18 and expanding the Keep Well programme.

“It is just one of the examples I will be demonstrating today of the work we are doing here in Scotland to tackle inequalities and improve the health and wellbeing of Scots.”

Ms Sturgeon said of the conference: “The Scottish Government faces the considerable twin challenges of improving our country’s health and tackling some stark health inequalities.

“We want to learn from experiences and best practice elsewhere, and showcase the actions we have taken to tackle these challenges.”

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