AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO HEALTHY LIVES - TRAINING AND SUPPORT PACKAGE

In exploring how best to support children, young people (CYP), and families in leading healthy and happy lives, the Public Health team identified the limited evidence for traditional Tier 2 weight management services. Whilst exploring alternatives, we discovered several local authorities moving away from a weight- centric focus and adopting compassionate and weight neutral approaches*.

The key elements of these approaches include:

•Appreciate the role of the wider determinants of health that are beyond individual control.

•Accept and respect the diversity of body shapes and sizes.

•Address and challenge weight stigma and nurture self-esteem.

•Promote health and wellbeing for all through sustainable behaviours such as joyful movement and a gentler approach to nutrition.

•Focus on measures of health such as reduction in blood pressure and increased sense of wellbeing which can improve independent of weight loss.

Discussions with system partners, research into these approaches, and feedback from our schools' survey-highlighting CYP's concerns about body image-strengthened our interest in integrating these methods.

In June 2025, Public Health hosted a 'Healthy Lives' workshop for system partners where Doncaster City Council presented their compassionate approach. This was well received and sparked reflection on potential practice changes.

This work will contribute towards empowering professionals to support CYP and families in developing positive relationships with their bodies, food, and movement to achieve their health goals.

• The phrase 'compassionate, weight-neutral approaches' will be used in the rest of this document to include compassionate, weight-neutral, weight-inclusive and health gains approaches.

1. Scope

To support our move towards a compassionate, weight-neutral way of working, we are commissioning this training and support package. This has two key aims:

• introduce professionals from a range of organisations to compassionate, weight-neutral approaches, to reflect on their current practice and identify potential changes

•support project leads in Public Health to develop and refine our approach in North Northamptonshire

The training will be targeted at North Northamptonshire Council staff and wider partners-including health visitors, school nurses, youth workers, Family Hubs, children's social care, and the VCSE sector.

The provider will evaluate the training's impact through pre- and post-assessments. They will also support project leads in establishing a local community of practice and co-developing a set of principles to guide future service delivery.

A minimum of four three-hour sessions will be delivered, either online or face-to-face (not in an e-learning format). North Northamptonshire Council will be responsible for organising and funding the local venues. The delivery formats will be agreed during the mobilisation stage.

Delivery Start: January 2026

Implementation meetings: December 2025

End of contract: January 2027

The capped budget for this procurement exercise which is £5,000