Obese pupils to be shipped off to 'fat camps'

London: Hundreds of thousands of Britain's overweight children - some as young as four - will be shipped off to fat camp, under a government scheme to tackle obesity.

Primary school pupils identified as being overweight will automatically be offered a place on a state-funded diet and exercise scheme.

Although parents will have the right to refuse to send their children to the classes, ministers hope the majority will attend.

Parents groups said the new National Health Service (NHS) rules meant Labour had moved "beyond a nanny state, to a dictatorship".

Health experts warned that the public branding of young children as fat could damage their confidence, expose them to bullying and trigger eating disorders. However, paediatricians welcomed the move.

Under existing regulations, children are weighed when they start primary school - aged four or five - and again as they leave, at 10 or 11. Parents of all children receive a letter saying whether their children are healthy, overweight, underweight or very overweight. Latest figures show that by the time they leave school, one in three children is overweight.

When it was introduced three years ago, the weighing programme was met with a backlash from parents. In its first year, more than half withdrew their children from the scheme, for fear they would be bullied after the class weigh-in.

When families were advised that pupils would not be told their weights, nor singled out and told to diet, but that data would simply be used by local health planners to monitor the spread of obesity and to help them set up the right services, participation rates increased. Last year, nine out of ten children were measured.

The new guidance orders an immediate change of approach.

From this month, pupils whose weight is too high - or too low - will automatically be offered a referral to "weight management services" in areas which already run such programmes or can set them up quickly.

Existing NHS schemes range from 12-week weight-loss courses taking place at weekends and on school nights, to six-week residential courses costing £3,000 (Dh18,405) a patient for the most obese.

All Primary Care Trusts have been "strongly encouraged" to have children's weight management services in place by next September, so that every overweight child in England can be referred for diet and exercise sessions.

Those identified as obese may be sent to paediatricians for specialist treatment, drugs or even surgery.

Margaret Morrissey, founder of family lobby group Parents Outloud, said it was "unforgivable" to promote schemes which would inevitably encourage humiliation to be heaped on those children bused off to fat camps.

She said: "This has gone beyond a nanny state, beyond Big Brother."

"To label young children as overweight because they are carrying a few extra pounds makes them so vulnerable to bullying, and increases the risk of developing eating disorders, especially among the girls.

"Obviously it is unfortunate if parents feed their children badly but this government appears to have forgotten that we do not live in a dictatorship."

Susan Ringwood, chief executive of eating disorder charity Beat, said she was "deeply concerned" that sending children to weight loss classes would increase the risk of bullying, which could trigger conditions like anorexia in the most vulnerable.

But paediatricians said the scale of the obesity crisis facing Britain meant that the drastic action being introduced by the Government was necessary.

Dr David Vickers, from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "It seems to me that it is more outrageous to tell parents that their child is overweight then do nothing about it, than to send them a letter and then offer some support."

Whether parents like it or not, in my opinion, this drastic measure taken up by the Govt. is a necessary evil. Obese students might be affected mentally if they are termed as 'fat'. But that can be handled by providing them with the right counselling. The availability of fattening food and the small size of the family contribute in this regard.
Agniyah Shaikh
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: September 12, 2009, 10:02