A recent consultation with primary age children, which NCB carried outfor the Office of the Children's Commissioner, provides useful pointersfor schools and primary care trusts in ensuring that weight monitoringis a positive experience.
Many children have natural concerns about health interventions likethis, which range from lack of privacy to body-image anxieties. We mustmove away from the scenario where large groups of semi-clothed pupilsare shivering nervously in the school hall, and ensure that children areactively involved in the process.
The children we spoke to said that health interventions could bepositive if their concerns were listened to and acted upon. They wantthe programme to be delivered in a warm private space; to have theopportunity to choose someone to come with them; clarity over who willsee the results; and anxieties over size or weight to be addressedsensitively.
However, there are resource implications to be considered. Many schoolsalready measure children's height and weight when they start primaryschool, but some are concerned that in spite of wanting to do the workthey do not have the capacity to deliver the intervention a second timein year six. And we know that school nurses are skilled in working wellwith children - but they are becoming an endangered species. Members ofNCB's Primary Care Trust Network report that their school nursingservices are under threat from competing priorities.
If measures like increased weight monitoring are to be fully effective,they must be integrated within health promotion programmes thatrecognise the importance of involving children and young people, andhave the resources to make that involvement viable.
- Jo Butcher, principal officer, children's development, NCB.
