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Listen to this siteWednesday 10 March 2004
Minutes of the meeting
Present
Rob Pickard
Maureen Howell
Andrea Partridge
Lindsey Kearton
Jeremy Corson
Jane Ludlow
Richard Edwards
Eddie Coyle
Gaynor Bussell
Teresa Owen
Anne Bull
Sian Roberts Davies
Su Mably
Glenys Phelpstead
David Smith
Paul Walker (am only)
Rhys Williams (pm only)
Apologies:
Ruth Fairchild
Beverlea Frowen
Secretariat:
Phil Morgan (Chairman)
Lorna Thompson
Hilary Neathey
Steve Wearne
Phil Morgan welcomed those not present at the first meeting of this Working Party and introduced Steve Wearne, the Interim Director of the Food Standards Agency Wales. Beverlea Frowen had volunteered to replace Susan Perkins as the representative for the WLGA in her capacity as the new Head of Health and Wellbeing, however, it was likely that Su Mably would ultimately act in this role following her move to the WLGA at the end of October.
Back to topPhil Morgan updated the group on progress against the Milestones in Food and Well Being. Progress under milestones 1, 5, 6, 8 and 9 were scheduled for discussion under specific agenda items. In addition, the following was reported:
Milestone 2: Guidance on weight management will be available… FSA Wales had received a report on the scoping work undertaken by Teresa Owen as part of her MPH dissertation. This would be used to inform future action. There was a proposed collaboration between the Health Promotion Division of the Welsh Assembly and BBC Wales targeting weight loss as part of its social action campaign. Official confirmation of this was awaited, with anticipated broadcast from March 2004.
Milestone 3: A monitoring group will be set-up… This had essentially been achieved through establishment of this Working Party
Milestone 4: Training, resources and guidelines for key players will be made available… The Wales Centre for Health had been commissioned by the Food Standards Agency Wales to examine the public health education and training of health related professionals in Wales and a report including recommendations for improvement had just been received- this would be circulated to group members for information.
ion: Secretariat
Milestone 5: Community cooking classes will commence by 2004 together with other sustainable initiatives to improve access to a healthy diet…. The FSA Wales 'Get Cooking' evaluation was tabled for discussion as a separate agenda item. The Health Promotion Division of the Assembly had been inundated with applications for their 'Food and Fitness Grants', designed to encourage healthy diet and active lifestyle. Successful applicants would be informed by the end of October.
Milestone 7: Initial strategy evaluation results will be available in 2006… A commitment to an annual progress report had been made through the Terms of Reference of the Working Party.
Back to topLorna Thompson outlined the main changes in the light of discussions at the last meeting as being the clarification of the reporting arrangements for the group, reference to local Health, Social Care and Well Being Strategies, and commitment to production of an annual progress report by the group.
It was agreed that in the first Term of Reference, 'LHB' should be amended to 'local' to reflect the joint responsibility with Local Authorities for Health Social Care and Well Being Strategies. Also, this should be extended to include 'any other complementary strategies at the community level'.
Pending these additional changes, the Terms of Reference were formally adopted.
Back to topHilary Neathey briefly described the background to this pilot 6 week course to encourage cooking skills in young people, and the outcome of the project evaluation. In the light of this there would be some revision to the course materials. There was recognition that this pilot was limited in terms of participants and geographical coverage, and plans were being developed to conduct a second wider-scale pilot prior to formal rollout.
Members offered the following observations:
This report detailed the results of survey work undertaken for FSA Wales by Beaufort Research in July 2002 and was a follow-up study to a baseline survey conducted in July 2001 prior to the introduction of school meals legislation in September 2001. The main message from this survey was that caterers were generally complying with the legislation, but that healthier options provided were not being taken-up by pupils when exercising their food choice.
Members were invited to respond to the results of this survey and to comment on future survey requirements:
Phil Morgan committed to seek the views of the Working Party when designing areas for future survey work of this nature.
Back to topA number of gaps in provision had been identified through a review of nutrition education resources available to socially disadvantaged consumers commissioned by FSA Wales in 2001. These included good quality Welsh language resources and websites, and resources for minority ethnic groups. Progress had been made in some of these areas, particularly in relation to translation of healthy eating resources produced by WAG and FSA into Welsh, and FSA Wales were due to go out to tender for a healthy eating booklet for young low income consumers. Phil Morgan asked the Working Party for their views on enhancing information provision. Suggestions included:
Rhys Williams, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, University of Wales, Swansea described how local child health statistics could be used to inform evaluation of the nutrition strategy. BMI measurement of children on school entry by school nurses in Neath and Port Talbot over the period 1986/7 to 2001/2 have shown levels of overweight/obesity to have approximately doubled, with children just over 1Kg heavier in 2001 than in 1986. It was postulated that extension of this data collection from local to a national level would be valuable as one of the monitoring tools for measuring the impact of the nutrition strategy. In the discussion that followed, members made the following points:
The secretariat had prepared a paper summarising surveys of diet and nutrition in Wales. It was suggested that information on the Heartbeat Wales and Health Promotion Wales surveys, and from the MRC Caerphilly men's study being conducted by Bristol University be added to this. The combined output from these surveys should provide a sound basis on which to measure the success of the nutrition strategy, and in this respect consistency was now needed in relation to survey work.
There was some discussion over the reliability of data from the NDNS, and the regional representation. The revamped Welsh Health Survey would provide the biggest single picture of consumption habits, particularly at the local level, in Wales, although the limitations of self-reported data were acknowledged.
The potential for tapping into retailer data required further investigation. Given the commercial sensitivity of this information, it was decided the way forward would be to invite the IGD (Gill Fine) in the first instance to explore this with members at the next meeting of the Working Party.
Action: Secretariat
The paper outlining this award scheme was well received and members felt it would serve to raise the profile and status of local nutrition initiatives. Members asked for examples of suitable types of initiatives to be added under each award category.
Action: Secretariat
Phil Morgan indicated he would be looking for 3 or 4 members to assist in the judging process.
Back to topSu Mably drew members' attention to a mapping project, pulling together evidence based practice in Wales at the local level, and being conducted on behalf of the WLGA. This extended beyond nutrition activities, and was intended to complement Local Health, Social Care and Well Being Strategies and help prioritise local decisions.
Rob Pickard congratulated Teresa Owen on her British Nutrition Foundation Young Scientist Award for research contribution to public health nutrition.
Phil Morgan reminded members that the next meeting of the Welsh Food Advisory Committee on 27th November would be themed with the focus on diet and nutrition for children and vulnerable consumers. This meeting would include presentation on the 'Get Cooking' scheme, 'Food Dudes', and the FSA school lunchbox survey.
It was proposed this should be January 26th 2004, venue to be confirmed.
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