Pulse.Assent

The British army women’s football team visited Kuwait on 16-19 October as part of a regional tour which also includes UAE, Bahrain and Qatar. They played a match with the Kuwaiti national women’s football team. They also conducted a series of community outreach events, including football and fitness coaching sessions at schools to raise awareness of the benefits of sport and promote positive opportunities for women in sports related activities.

The British Ambassador held a Great branded reception in his house for the British and Kuwaiti teams as well as senior officials from Kuwait Football Association. The visit helped in strengthening sports and cultural ties between the youth in both countries. It also reflected UK’s commitment to see more women in sport. The visit also helped to kick start Kuwaiti women’s football . The media coverage of the visit both on social media and mainstream media was substantive with many positive comments .

Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns supported the opening of a new Cardiff HQ for tech start-up DevOpsGuys on 18 October. The software development company founded in 2013 now employs over 85 people across its London and Cardiff offices, with the aim of delivering practical IT engineering and consultancy solutions to clients including BAE Systems, Vodafone, gocompare.com as well as various UK Government departments.

The firm contributes in excess of £14m into the local economy via investment in the tech community and building strong relationships with universities through its internship and graduate schemes.

The new office will be based on Greyfriars Road in the capital.

Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns said:

The tech sector across the UK and Wales is growing rapidly, and firms such as DevOpsGuys are making sure that knowledge in this field stays in the local area.

I’m delighted that DevOpsGuys has flourished and is addressing challenges in digital transformation, and provides vital training and support to interns and graduates, strengthening the local economy.

The UK Government is committed to investing in digital infrastructure which has for too long been a barrier to economic growth across Wales. I’m pleased to see an increase in research and development funding – by £2bn a year by 2020/21 – which will help Wales build on its strengths in this field and make it a more innovative economy for the years ahead.

New National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) data show the number of obese children in reception year has risen for the second consecutive year – to 9.6% in the 2016 to 2017 school year, up from 9.3% in 2015 to 2016. For year 6 children, it has remained stable at 20%.

The latest data from the NCMP, overseen by Public Health England (PHE), also shows a stubborn gap between the richest and poorest. In the most deprived areas, 12.7% of children in reception year are obese, compared to 5.8% in the least deprived. Obesity in year 6 is 26.3% in the most deprived areas, compared to 11.4% in the least deprived.

Today’s report (19 October 2017) underlines the importance of PHE’s work to tackle childhood obesity. This includes working with the food industry to reduce sugar and calories in the foods children eat the most.

Dr Alison Tedstone, Chief Nutritionist at PHE, said:

Children deserve a healthy future and these figures are a reminder that addressing childhood obesity requires urgent action.

There is no single solution to reverse what’s been decades in the making. We need sustained actions to tackle poor diets and excess calorie intakes. We’re working with industry to make food healthier, we’ve produced guidance for councils on planning healthier towns and we’ve delivered campaigns encouraging people to choose healthier food and lead healthier lives.

Children who are overweight or obese are more likely to suffer from poor self-esteem, bullying and tooth decay in childhood. They are also more likely to be overweight or obese adults, which can lead to a range of preventable illnesses including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

With the government’s Childhood Obesity Plan published a year ago, significant steps are already being taken to help children avoid a lifetime of poor health.

In addition to PHE’s work to reduce sugar and calories in food, the Soft Drinks Industry Levy has become law and will take effect from April 2018. Leading retailers and manufacturers have announced they are, or already have, lowered the amount of sugar in their products as a result of these programmes.

PHE’s Change4Life campaign is also helping millions of families to make healthier choices through meal swap suggestions and the Be Food Smart app, helping parents to identify the sugar, salt and fat in food. It also supports schools to help them embed healthier habits into everyday school life.

Progress on childhood obesity will be monitored through the yearly NCMP data but, with obesity rates increasing over many years, significant change will take time.

Eustace De Sousa, National Lead for Children, Young People and Families at PHE, said:

A healthy weight in childhood lays the foundations for decades of healthy life as an adult. This data underlines how important it is for families to talk about health and weight as part of everyday life.

Each year, more children leave primary school overweight or obese and our most deprived areas are the worst affected. It’s never too soon to make a change and there is lots of support from councils and Change4Life to help.