Childhood obesity trailblazer programme

Birmingham City Council was announced as one of five Trailblazer Authorities in 2019, to lead an innovative programme of work, to tackle childhood obesity by working to change the wider systems from obesogenic to salutogenic. We were awarded £300,000 over three years (2019 to 2022) to test and refine ideas for addressing childhood obesity and health inequalities across the city.

The Department of Health and Social Care, the Local Government Association, Public Health England (PHE), and University of Birmingham are supporting Birmingham City Council to trial new programmes, which could help shape future national policy.

Dr Justin Varney, Director of Public Health at Birmingham City Council, said:

Birmingham’s approach to the trailblazer programme is rooted in strong partnerships and citizens voices. The emphasis is on getting upstream of the food environment through skills and education as well as maximising the potential levers of economic growth to create a city where healthy food is affordable, accessible and the easiest, most delicious option for everyone. We know that we won’t achieve this overnight, but the trailblazer allows us to build on our current approach at pace, while learning in partnership with others.

Three work streams

The Food System Team took over the delivery and conclusion of the Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme (COTP) in 2021, with the intention to make the most of the learning and opportunities created since 2019.

We developed and aligned the following three workstreams.

Work stream one: Integrate Public Health into built environment processes

• Embedding public health considerations into planning process.
• Creating a whole system approach to public health and planning that continuously evolves at a macro and micro level intervention.

Work stream two: Capture food system insights and data

• Developing tools and resources to empower such as the East Birmingham Community Food Research Project, Birmingham Youth Voices in Food Assessment Resources, and the Affordable Food Map.
• Facilitating and building upon best practice through work with ongoing programmes such as East Birmingham Inclusive Growth Strategy, The Mandala Consortium, The Food Justice Network, and many more.

Work stream three: Embed health literacy development - identify barriers and enablers to implementation and practice

• Developing innovative new approaches and building on existing best practice health literacy resources such as the creation of our spiral curriculum working with the University of Birmingham, developing culturally diverse healthy eating guidance, and creating a thriving local network on the international platform Whisk for sharing nutritious food.

Outcome and report

In August 2022, the Food System Team submitted the final evaluation report for the COTP to the Local Government Association. The report highlights the achievements of the COTP and the key lessons from what has worked well and what has been challenging.

A test and learn approach was taken, which enabled the team to closely monitor progress and milestones and to adapt our approached as required.

Key successes

• Created a Healthy City Planning Toolkit to support with the Health Impact Assessment of planning processes, and designed it as a living document that can be built on in the future. Birmingham’s approach goes beyond those recommended in national toolkits, and includes protected characteristics and digital technology. We have also developed an action plan to support the future embedding of public health in planning processes as part of a whole system approach. In addition, we have looked at how planning and land use can be considered from other angles, including from a community growing perspective.
• We have developed strong relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders and partners across Birmingham which has reduced duplication in tools and has increased innovation and solutions. The conversations that took place as part of the initial scoping of this work stream led to the Mandala Consortium focusing their food system research project on Birmingham. We have ongoing project with community researchers and young people which will have impacts for years to come as we are developing tools that will be shared.
• A team at the University of Birmingham conducted the evaluation of work stream three and captured valuable insights and learning that will guide future health literacy projects.

Key learnings

• Develop strong relationships and communication with stakeholders and partners as many solutions are already out there, or could be achieved through partnership working, so strong relationships and communication are key.
• Initially map existing processes before developing solutions. Identify opportunities and potential challenges. A solution that doesn’t fit into this existing process will likely not be adopted.
• Create living documents that evolve, rather than static tools, to allow for guidance and policy that continuously develop.

There will be a lasting legacy for each of the work streams as they have been integrated into other projects, and embedded into the Birmingham Food System Strategy. The learning gathered through the Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme will shape the future approaches to tackling obesity in our city.

Download the Birmingham Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme final evaluation report.

Find out more about the programme on the Local Government Association website.

Page last updated: 29 August 2023