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Report transcript in: The National Child Measurement programme
Please Report the Errrors?
My name's Rachel and I'm a mum living in Saint Helens.
I'm also a senior improvement advisor at Aqua NHS
and we've been working with teams in Saint
Helens to improve the National Child Measurement programme.
This is a mandated public health programme
where Children are weighed and measured in reception and year
six and categorised according to their body mass index.
The teams recognise
that improvements could be made to improve the
process and the experience for Children and families.
But to do this we need parents help to share their experience
and to be involved in co
producing
a better way forward.
This film is a summary of our key findings from interviews with parents who
were asked the question What is your
experience of the National child measurement programme?
I received a letter in September about him being overweight.
Is that Is that the right letter?
That's the one.
Yeah,
I like I Googled it and see what it was. Um
but no, I don't I don't I've not heard anything since,
So this is the first time I'm hearing about it.
And I suppose it kind of gives you a bit of a true reflection of the height,
the weight because we don't really
wait at home. Um, that's not something that we do routinely as a family,
uh,
as a family day out or whatever you know.
And as I said, very overweight. The very is even more hurtful. Do you know what I mean?
It's not like she's O.
She's overweight. She's very overweight. Well, what does that mean?
I suppose it fits purpose for the programme for yourselves to access
the the data. But do I really need it?
I didn't feel like it did.
There's no guide. And I suppose I would have like to discuss with somebody.
What exactly do you want? What do you think I should do then?
Because she is a bit of a fussy eater
or she
she eats lots of fruit and things like that, more so than the other little boy,
the other boy. So,
um, but I think discussing it with somebody as to what did
what did they think? There's no point sending that out because it's it's that for
That's not for me. That's not for her.
That's that's just a statistic. Isn't it
solely this one letter really that we got back in October.
Um, so about four months ago.
And well, it thanks to the day, actually, four months ago,
Um, basically, just stating that
your child is overweight and
pretty much not very much else, to be honest.
And it says that someone will contact you within a few weeks.
And we never heard of anybody
and then to not hear nothing after receiving that letter. It
it was something that I thought about daily,
um, that I was worried about
so receiving the letter that, uh, not having no support after that,
Um, it was quite frustrating and worrying. Really?
Um, no, it's quite a lengthy process.
Um, so from a point of view of when you, um, carry out the process,
maybe you could get the email addresses of the parents.
Um, and rather than sending the letter through the post,
I mean that that that in itself will delay it by a week.
I received a letter, um, to say that my son was overweight,
but II, I haven't heard anything since. This is the first time
I'm hearing about it.
So if you had the email addresses of the parents,
you could email them a link to somewhere where they could get the information from,
um, and when they go on to that link, it could not only,
um, give them the results and the details of that child's, uh, performance,
but it could also give advice.
Apart from that, the weight and height.
They don't say how they come to that conclusion or anything like that.
It just says your child is very overweight.
That the letter just, um,
yeah, I just wasn't expecting it.
We recognise that maybe
your child needs some support with some,
um, around healthy eating or exercise or
more of a support thing instead of just slamming a letter to you saying
that you know they're overweight or they're obese
when really they know nothing about nothing.
Um, quite angry, Um, at the way that it it's put across. Um, it's not very well worded.
Um,
obviously, when you try to digest it,
it comes across as a as an accusation that you're not a very good parent,
basically puts the parent on the back foot and
one that can either make a parent panic.
Um,
and secondly, um, make them feel
like they're not really a very parent.
I will be. I will be honest. My first thing I did was whip it up and put it in the bin
because it wasn't something that I feel like I needed to take note of.
So it's, I suppose, the consequence of sort of getting a letter like that,
which is not right.
But I did put her on the scales and that was the
consequence for me Is that I I've never ever done that before.
Hi, my name is Matt Cunliffe.
I'm now a public health practitioner at ST Helen's Council.
I'm going to briefly discuss how we will continue to Coro
and
some changes that we will look to make
to the NT MP programme locally.
So as a result of this co
production project,
we will look to implement changes to how we communicate with parents
and that's be both before measurements are taken
and after when sharing the results.
So the National Child Measurement Programme is a national
return that all local authorities are required to undertake.
However, we can make local changes to how we share results.
So on screen points 1 to 3 is how we will continue to coro
consult parents and Children on the NT MP
and the final point point four
notes how we want to embed co
production across a range of public health projects and commissioned services
to ensure local people
are helping shape delivery and intervention,
and we get their voices heard.
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