Research and analysis

Child and family weight management services: statistical summary

Published 18 March 2025

Applies to England

Introduction

In March 2021, the government announced an additional £4.4 million of funding over the 2021 to 2022 financial year to expand support for children identified as overweight or living with obesity and their families.

The child and family weight management grant determination 2021 to 2022 (number 31/5627) was announced in July 2021. This distributed £4.2 million of new ringfenced funding through a competitive allocation process across 11 local authorities in England to run 8 projects.

These projects aimed to:

• pilot extended brief interventions (EBIs) to improve access to local services for children identified as overweight or living with obesity through the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP)
• test the expansion of behavioural weight management services

The EBI is typically offered following delivery of the NCMP when the weight status of most children is assessed. The EBI is one or more sessions where a practitioner:

• discusses a child’s weight and growth with their parent or carer
• uses behaviour change techniques to support acceptance and action
• offers tailored support and onward referral to services

This would take place once a child has been identified as overweight or living with obesity. However, there was some variation in how the projects identified children for this brief intervention.

Behavioural weight management services for children and their families are family-based multi-component programmes addressing dietary intake, physical activity, and behaviour change for children who are overweight or living with obesity. The primary aim is weight maintenance and growing into a healthier weight, rather than weight loss, and depends on the age of the child, stage of growth and degree of obesity. Typically, these services provide 12-week programmes, but there was some variation in the length of interventions. 

Children aged between 2 and 19 years were eligible for these services.

To understand the impact of this investment, local authorities had to ensure collection of a minimum set of data on all participants and their progress. This data was supplied to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) for analysis.

Interpreting the data

This report includes data for the period April 2021 to May 2023. Data was received from all local authorities who accepted the grant funding for these projects. All counts are final.

The OHID minimum dataset collects data for offer, take-up and completion of EBI and any referral to local weight management services. For weight management services it collects data on referral, enrolment (week 0), end of intervention (usually week 12) and follow-up (week 26).

Detailed metadata for this statistical release can be found in the child and family weight management services: data tables.

All tables include records for children aged between 5 and 17 years. The timeline of interventions and progress can be monitored via linked data. Data from all participating local authorities is considered together.

Main findings

Across the 8 projects, 6,273 offers of an EBI were made, of which 51% (3,185) were taken up. Of those who took up these offers, 2,677 completed the intervention, a completion rate of 84%.

Of the 1,827 children referred to weight management services, 38% were self-referrals and 5% GP referrals. The remainder were from other healthcare professionals (28%), non-health professionals (16%) or the referral source was either unknown or missing (13%). Of these referrals, 12 (1%) followed an EBI.

Of the children who were referred to weight management services, 943 were enrolled on to weight management services, attending at week 0, an enrolment rate of 52%. Eighty per cent (758) of those enrolled were known to be from high-risk groups:

• 54% lived in the most deprived 30% of areas in England
• 40% were from Black, Asian or Mixed ethnic groups
• 22% had a recorded disability

Of those enrolled, 24% were recorded as living with severe obesity and 21% with obesity. A further 6% of participants were living with overweight. However, height and weight were not recorded for 42% of those enrolled. 

A total of 347 children completed the programme (usually 12 weeks), a completion rate of 37%. Of these, 345 children had a valid weight status recorded at the start of the programme (week 0) and 106 also had a valid weight status recorded on completion of the programme (usually week 12).

Of those with valid data on weight status at both start and end of the active intervention 77 (73%) had improved their weight status, however, this is 8% of those who started the programme.

A total of 315 children were followed up at 26 weeks from the start of the weight management intervention. Of these, 313 children had a valid weight status recorded at follow-up (week 26) as well as a valid weight status recorded at the start of the programme (week 0). Of those with valid weight status recorded at both the start of the active intervention and at long-term follow-up, 146 (47%) had improved their weight status, however, this is 15% of those who started the programme.

Background

Further information about the data collection can be found in the minimum dataset technical guidance, available on the child and family weight management grant determination page.

Methodology

The completion rate is calculated by dividing the number of completions by the number of enrolments, and submission of data to OHID.

The analysis of outcomes at completion or long term follow up is restricted to participants where both valid height and weight measurements at enrolment and at completion or long term follow up of the service are available.

Children in weight management services are not expected to lose weight but rather to grow into a healthier weight. They may maintain their weight or gain weight at a slower rate as they grow taller, thus achieving a lower body mass index (BMI) or healthier weight status. In this publication improvement in weight status is measured by a change (reduction) in BMI z-score. 

Z-score is a statistical measurement that describes a value’s relationship to the mean of a group of values. Z-score is measured in terms of standard deviations from the mean.

For queries or comments relating to this document and accompanying data tables contact pha-ohid@dhsc.gov.uk.