Member News
22nd December 2010
With a huge shake-up of the NHS and a focus on public health, MEND is looking forward to 2011.
The end of the year is often a time for reflection. For MEND, it's a time to look back at what our graduate families across the country have achieved, culminating in our annual Parliamentary Reception where we celebrate the lifestyle changes they've made to become fitter, healthier and happier.
Although MEND is the largest provider of child weight-management interventions in the UK, we have to date reached only one per cent of the UK population who need our help. Whilst we celebrate the achievements of the families who have experienced the MEND programme in 2010, our main concern is that the restructuring in the health system, and particularly the forthcoming strategy on tackling obesity due in the spring, will enable us to help even more.
In the field of public health and obesity, 2010 has seen the publication of the NHS and public health white papers which together promise a dramatic shift of power and responsibility from PCTs to local authorities. While the fog has arguably not yet fully lifted on the government's plans for public health, the immediate impact of these announcements quickly became apparent.
For community-based teams delivering the MEND programme across the country, 2010 brought the challenge of maintaining services in the face of great uncertainty. In some cases ‘white paper paralysis' has meant it has fallen to us to step in and provide central support to ensure local programmes continue to run. The irony is that this goes against the ethos of local communities taking control of their own services.
Yet it's fair to say that all restructurings of this size deserve a transition period, and we look forward to sharing best practice with local authorities and GP consortia in 2011 to help them prepare for their new responsibilities, so that service delivery can fall back into the hands of those who do it best – local people.
Looking forward, the future may be bright, particularly with the promised ring-fenced public health budget. Since May, the coalition government has consistently reiterated its commitment to prevention, early intervention, and evidence-based solutions that work to change behaviour.
Speaking of taking time to reflect, in 1992's ‘The Health of the Nation', the Conservative government pledged to cut obesity rates to six per cent of men and eight per cent of women by 2005. In 2008, those figures stood at 24 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.
With the huge shake-up of the NHS planned for the coming years, the coalition government has a unique opportunity to tackle obesity head on, and in a new way. We hope it will seize this opportunity, and we look forward to contributing to the government's forthcoming paper on obesity.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.