The Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee is scheduled to consider updates on the Young Mayors team and the Healthy Weight programme. The meeting will also review the minutes from the previous session and address any apologies for absence.

Young Mayors Team

The Sub-Committee is scheduled to receive a report on the Young Mayors team. This report will provide information on the team's leadership and engagement activities, as well as its current priorities and focus areas. The agenda indicates that young people will have the opportunity to present to the committee, sharing their experiences, concerns, and aspirations, and explaining how these are influencing youth services. The committee will be asked to note the young people's attendance and presentation and provide any further comments or feedback.

Healthy Weight Update

A report is scheduled for discussion regarding the progress of the Child Healthy Weight programme. This follows a challenge session held in November 2023, which resulted in eight recommendations across three themes: Food, Physical Activity, and Psychology and Culture. The report will detail the activities undertaken to address these recommendations, including improvements to school meals, the development of health and wellbeing offers within Young Tower Hamlets, and training programmes for professionals. It will also cover proposals for the Local Plan to enhance play, exercise, and green spaces, alongside efforts to provide healthy food through food banks and voucher schemes, and audits of social spaces for young people. The report notes that the child healthy weight programme has been reviewed and will be taken forward in three future programmes: Move well, Eat well, and Specialist support, aligning with adult healthy weight programmes for a whole-family approach. The committee will be asked to note the progress made and the next steps for the child healthy weight agenda in the borough.

The report highlights that while there have been improvements in the prevalence of unhealthy weight in younger children, with Tower Hamlets now below the national average for overweight children at reception age, the picture is different for older children. By Year 6, the borough has a higher proportion of children with unhealthy weight status compared to the national average. The report also notes that Tower Hamlets has a higher proportion of underweight children, partly due to a higher proportion of children of Asian ethnicity, where body composition can differ. The prevalence of severe obesity at both reception and Year 6 remains static and higher than the national average.

The report details the actions taken to address the recommendations, including:

• Food: Monitoring free school meal uptake, improving school meals through the Fantastic Food in School programme, and piloting opt-out registration for free school meals in secondary schools.
• Physical Activity: Contributing to the Local Plan to ensure policies related to green spaces, urban greening, and play spaces promote health and well-being, and advocating for minimum amenity and play space standards in new developments.
• Psychology and Culture: Scoping community programmes to provide access to healthy, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food, including partnerships with food banks and voucher schemes. Efforts are also being made to influence community champions and promote healthy eating messages. The report also mentions efforts to make fast food outlets healthier through the Food For Health programme.
• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND): Funding holiday clubs for children with SEND, reviewing the junior SEND physical activity offer, and ensuring children with SEND can access free school meals.
• Underweight Children and Eating Disorders: Conducting a review to assess the prevalence and needs of underweight children and establishing a faltering growth pathway within the health visiting service.

The report concludes by outlining the proposed future structure for addressing child healthy weight, which will be organised into three pillars: 'Moving Well', 'Eating Well', and 'Specialist Support'. This approach aims to use non-technical language and potentially expand to include adult health and wellbeing for a more integrated, whole-family offer.