The National Child Measurement programme

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.