Over three quarters of acute NHS trusts in England (77%) do not have a child weight management service, despite being responsible for providing specialist services for the most severely obese, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Bristol and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). 

The study also found considerable variation between geographical areas, with 36% of trusts in London, and 32% in the Northeast and Yorkshire providing services, compared with just 4% of trusts in the Midlands. The data were collected through Freedom of Information requests sent to 148 acute NHS trusts in England between March 2020 and March 2021. Most trusts (139; 94%) responded. Just 32 provided a child weight management service. It is the first time that the nature of child weight management services provided by acute trusts in England has been explored. 

Read the full University of Bristol news item

'Cross-sectional survey of child weight management service provision by acute NHS trusts across England in 2020/2021' by Ruth Mears, Sofia Leadbetter, Toby Candler, Hannah Sutton, Deborah Sharp and Julian P H Shield in BMJ Open [open access]