Nursery World - Boost school nursing to tackle childhood obesity, says Unite

Unite the union is calling for money to be redirected from the National Child Measurement Programme into creating school nursing posts to combat childhood obesity, as the latest figures show a rise in the number of school children overweight or obese.

The union’s comments follow today’s release of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) figures for 2011/12, which show that one in three children in Year 6 (ten and 11-year-olds) are overweight or obese, an increase of 0.5 per cent on 2010/11.

In contrast, the proportion of reception children who are overweight or obese has remained the same at 22.6 per cent, the same percentage as last year.

According to the report from the Government’s National Child Measurement Programme in schools for 2011/12, children who were black or black British were most likely to be obese both in reception and Year 6, while Chinese children were least likely.

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