Professor Paul Gately
Regional Chair of the National Obesity Forum (Yorkshire and the Humber)
Professor at Leeds Metropolitan University and CEO of Carnegie Weight Management Centre

Conference Chair:
Professor Paul Gately
Regional Chair of the National Obesity Forum (Yorkshire and the Humber)
Professor at Leeds Metropolitan University and CEO of Carnegie Weight Management Centre

Delivering effective services in a whole systems approach

Professor Gately will explore with the delegates how a systems approach to addressing weight issues with young people can lead to sustainable weight management. The approach is family focused and caters for the importance of raising self esteem and tackling social exclusion to help children and their family's to access mainstream opportunities for physical activity. The programme re-educates children and their parents to establish sustainable dietary habits and employs peer support and motivational work to assist them to address weight problems.
The weight management programme has a menu of interventions including summer camp and weekend activity attendance with nutrition and cookery groups, groups to improve self esteem and develop a range of skills to assist young people to interact and improve relationship building with other young people, physical activity sessions, lifestyle enhancing techniques, coping strategies and also family based work, both in groups and with individual families. Professor Gately will discuss the evidence for the need for long term follow up and peer support and discuss the techniques that he has developed to address this need.

Professor Paul Gately

Regional Chair of the National Obesity Forum (Yorkshire and the Humber)
Professor at Leeds Metropolitan University and CEO of Carnegie Weight Management Centre

Conference Chair:
Prof. Andrew Hill
Head of Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University of Leeds

Psychological consequences of Childhood Obesity
The risk that childhood obesity carries for low self esteem, impaired quality of life and depression will be discussed along with the victimization and social isolation experienced by some obese children and adolescents. Successful weight management and engagement with lifestyle change initiatives requires overcoming these barriers to program uptake and engagement. Professor Hill will describe how understanding social networks may help in this and will argue that improvements in psychological and social functioning are themselves important secondary outcomes in efforts to manage obesity.

Prof. Andrew Hill

Head of Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University of Leeds

Keynote Speaker:
Richard Cienciala
Deputy Director, Obesity Team, Department of Health

Obesity - the Challenge and the Policy Context.

Richard Cienciala

Deputy Director, Obesity Team, Department of Health

Kim Hastie
Former Lead for National Support Team(UK) – Childhood Obesity

UK strategy –whole systems approach to childhood obesity what does good look like?
Kim will lead us through a recent report which discusses the evidence for what works in terms of tackling childhood obesity in the United Kingdom. With her first hand knowledge of strategic work right across the UK, Kim will share with us findings on the whole- system strategic approach to tackling childhood obesity and what a good strategy should contain. We will examine the evidence to support wide ranging strategies which offer accessible, relevant and effective initiatives which are inclusive, delivered at a large enough scale to reach whole communities.

Kim Hastie

Lead for National Support Team(UK) – Childhood Obesity

Dr. Robert Copeland
Principal Research Fellow, Sheffield Hallam University

Change for Life Sheffield - evaluating a whole systems approach in one city
This ambitious programme aims to prevent obesity in children, young people and families through shifting attitudes and culture in the city at all levels and by delivering a range of universal and targeted prevention activities which focus on individuals, families, children's centres, schools and communities across Sheffield. Specifically, the programme will deliver on 8 key areas of activity to ensure that by 2012 the obesity rates in Sheffield will be falling.

The 8 areas are:

• Breast feeding
• Community health champions
• Cross Sector innovations
• Living neighbourhoods
• The great outdoors
• Food
• Schools
• Social marketing

Dr. Robert Copeland

Principal Research Fellow, Sheffield Hallam University

Dr. Laurel Edmunds
PHD, Oxford University UK

The overweight child's perspective

Dr Laurel Edmunds is a psychologist with a background in education. Dr Edmunds review of the intervention literature, interview-based research and her review of treatment and prevention studies for 12 years have culminated in her commitment to evidence based child/family centred interventions.

She will explore the psycho-social aspects of childhood obesity and what the findings have to add to the evidence base for effective interventions.

Dr. Laurel Edmunds

PHD, Oxford University UK

Carol Weir
Public Health Specialist, NHS Rotherham

Commissioning to address childhood obesity at a local level
The Foresight Report suggested that to change the forecasts for obesity levels will require radical, far-reaching and long term strategies. This presentation puts theory into practice using examples from NHS Rotherham's Healthy Weight Framework.
The session will discuss the development of Rotherham's Healthy Weight Management Commissioning Framework and how evidence has been used to implement a range of interventions for children and families to prevent and tackle obesity.
The presentation will describe what has happened in Rotherham since this Framework was developed in 2008, discuss outcomes to date, review lessons learned and discuss how both prevention and treatment activity will continue to develop to ensure everyone in Rotherham is supported to be a healthy weight.

Carol Weir

Public Health Specialist, NHS Rotherham