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Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives

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Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives is a cross government strategy to halt and reduce obesity levels. Published in response to the Foresight report, Tackling Obesities: Future Choices, it aims to bring about a ‘radical transformation’ in the opportunities people have to make healthy choices in order to maintain a healthy weight and lead healthier lives.

The initial focus of the strategy is on children. The target is to reduce the proportion of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels by 2020. This is reflected in the government’s Public Service Agreement on child health and well-being for 2008-11 (PSA 12: Improve the health and well-being of children and young people).

Immediate action for government focuses on five policy areas:

  • promote children’s health
  • promote healthy food
  • build physical activity into our lives
  • support health at work and provide incentives more widely to promote health
  • provide effective treatment and support when people become overweight or obese.

The strategy acknowledges the contribution that sport, dance and participation in other forms of physical activity make to:

  • the health of children and young people
  • getting people moving as a normal part of their day
  • supporting employer incentives for better health.

It includes specific actions and proposed performance indicators for culture and sport, including:

Children and young people

  • Develop tailored programmes in schools to increase participation by obese and overweight pupils in PE and sporting activities
  • Increase investment to help all schools reach Healthy School standards
  • Invest in a comprehensive marketing programme, to include information on local opportunities for children and young people such as ‘walking buses’ and safe play areas
  • Improve cycling infrastructure and skills in areas where child weight is a particular problem

Building physical activity into our lives

  • Review government’s overall approach to physical activity through the Treasury-led development of a new physical activity strategy, including:
    • the role of Sport England in building and delivering a world-class sports infrastructure
    • a potential new body, Active England, to lead on government commitments on physical activity
    • initiatives to inspire people to be more active in the run up to London 2012
  • Promote active travel, including support for a Walking into Health programme
  • Invest £30 million in Healthy Towns
  • Encourage local planning authorities to consider the physical activity implications of planning applications relating to outdoor space, including open space and playing fields
  • Use the planning policy review to improve public spaces for play use
  • Work with interested local authorities to sign up to a Healthy Community Challenge Fund to test and validate holistic approaches to promoting physical activity

Creating incentives for better health

Explore with the fitness and leisure industries how to boost use of their facilities at off-peak times by families and staff under flexible working conditions

Proposed performance indicators for culture and sport include:

  • Number of school children participating in at least two hours of school sport a week
  • Progress against the new target to increase participation among 5-16 year-olds to five hours each week within or outside school
  • Numbers of adults participating in recommended levels of physical activity

This site will be updated once the indicators are finalised.

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