As part of a raft of measures aimed at tackling the childhood obesity epidemic, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is calling for reform of, or an end to, the letter parents receive as part of the national programme which weighs and measures primary school children - sometimes known as the 'fat letter'.

Launched in 2005, the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) collects data on children's BMI at the start and end of primary school. While useful at gathering the data at population level to monitor trends in obesity rates, the NCMP has taken on the additional task of providing parents with feedback on their children's weight. Since the NCMP first reported in 2006-07 the number of children leaving primary school obese has continued to increase from 17.5% to 18.9%. This is double the proportion (9.5%) classified as obese when they start primary school.

New research by RSPH among parents of children aged 18 or under has found only half are aware of the NCMP (49%) or understand its purpose (51%), and just one in five (20%) have received information as a result of the programme that has been useful in helping their child lose weight. RSPH believes the scheme needs reform to tackle parental confusion around its purpose, improve the way information is communicated to parents, and provide additional support. Steps to address this would include:

  • Support in the form of either healthy food vouchers or access to after school activity clubs to incentivise better dietary and exercise habits for young people.
  • Better integration of the programme with other initiatives such as Change4Life and inclusion of useful guides on diet and exercise with the information that is sent.
  • Ensuring parents of children who are obese are contacted by telephone prior to receipt of the letter.

As well as reform of the "fat letter", RSPH is calling for a host of other measures in a comprehensive package aimed at reversing childhood obesity, including:

  • Restrictions on junk food advertising on social media and online - this would feed into the Advertising Standards Authority consultation on the issue next year.
  • Introduction of a minimum hour of 'fun and play' in primary schools to increase activity levels.
  • Working with the food industry to encourage reformulation of their products and to introduce a 'sugar tax' on high sugar content soft drinks.
  • Improved training for health practitioners to offer advice during pregnancy and early years.

Unveiling the measures, Shirley Cramer CBE, Chief Executive of RSPH, said: "It is unacceptable that one in five children leave primary school classed as obese and we must all pull together to reverse this worrying trend. We hope that the Government's forthcoming obesity strategy will include many of our suggestions for action at all levels, particularly around the promotion of "junk food" to children, encouraging reformulation of food and drink products, especially around sugar content, and increasing activity levels among children. Parents also need to be provided with support, and our calls to reform the "fat letter" are intended to make better use of this. Our research finds that only one fifth of parents find the "fat letter" useful and we believe that the letter should be seen as the beginning of a dialogue with parents, not simply flagging whether their child is obese."

More information including the full RSPH report can be found at www.rsph.org.uk/childhoodobesity.