Shropshire Star

More pupils leave Telford primary schools overweight than national average

The number of pupils classed as obese in their final years at primary school in Telford & Wrekin is above the national average, new figures reveal.

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Figures from Public Health England show 20.4 per cent of 10 and 11-year-olds are overweight. The national average stands at 19.1 per cent.

By contrast, Shropshire has the best record in the West Midlands for the same age group with 15.3 per cent of 10 and 11-year-olds in the Shropshire Council area overweight.

Councillor Richard Overton, Telford & Wrekin Council's cabinet member for housing, leisure and health, today insisted that measures were being taken in the borough to tackle the problem.

He said: "Within Telford and Wrekin we continue to tackle child obesity delivering initiatives and cooking bus activities in schools and local communities.

"Alongside this we have ongoing promotion of the national Change4Life Campaign, giving information and advice to children and families, and continue to work with families to increase the uptake of free school meals for those who are eligible.

"We also have a team of school nurses providing support to children and families in schools, which again includes information, advice and signposting for support, and work with key partners to achieve a borough that makes it easier to make healthy choices.

"An example of this is working with fast food outlets to support the achievement of the locally developed Healthier Catering Commitment."

Dr Kevin Lewis, Director of Help2Change, which provides preventative healthcare services on behalf of Shropshire Council's public health team, said the figure for Shropshire was encouraging.

But he added: "We are not complacent because there's still been a significant increase in the last 10 years in the number of children overweight in the county.

"There's still an increase between the two ages that we measure.

"We measure all of the children who come into school at reception year and we measure them again at 10 and 11, and there's an increase between those two ages, which is obviously something we are trying to prevent.

"So although the figures are encouraging, there's still quite a lot of work to do on people who are overweight in childhood."

Figures from Public Health England, which relate to the period 2014/15, also showed that in the West Midlands region 21.2 per cent of children aged 10 or 11 were overweight.

The figure was the highest in Wolverhampton, where it stood at 25.9 per cent.

Anyone in Telford and Wrekin who wants advice on health issues can contact the healthy families team on 01952 385465 or email healthy.families@telford.gov.uk

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