£100m investment to support children, adults and families to live healthier lives

Slimming World has welcomed the government’s recent pledge to invest £100 million over the next 12 months to support children, adults, and families to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

As part of delivering the commitments set out in Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives, the Government announced £100 million extra funding for healthy weight programmes; of which £35 million will be allocated to councils, and £35 million will go to the NHS to be invested into weight-management services.

Paul Sharpe, Head of Partnerships for Slimming World, said: “The government have announced that £70 million is to be invested into weight-management services – made available through the NHS and Local Authorities – enabling up to 700,000 adults to access support, including digital apps, weight-management groups and clinical support, helping them to lose weight.

“We are working closely with the government, through Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care, to fully understand how Local Authorities can access the fund, and how we can fully support them in maximising its impact.”

Paul explained that Slimming World works with the NHS via its referral service and with the government through PHE: “In July 2020, Slimming World was invited to partner Public Health England’s Better Health campaign – the government’s response to Covid and obesity – and has supported over 40,000 people to lose weight since the campaign began."

Slimming World has long called for greater support for weight management – including a national voice for obesity, training for health professionals to enable them to talk to their patients about weight in a sensitive and skilled way, and more protection for young people and families to maintain a healthy weight.

Paul added: “We are delighted that the government has recognised the essential role that behavioural change weight-management services play in the health of the nation, and we look forward to working with even more Local Authority and NHS partners over the coming months.”