The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) is a nationally mandated public health programme. It provides the data for the child excess weight indicators in the Public Health Outcomes Framework, and is part of the government's approach to tackling child obesity.

A specially trained member of the Healthy Together Team will attend your child's school to carry out the measurements.

• The measurements are completed sensitively and in private. Your child is not told the results.
• The results are kept confidential and are not shared with any teachers or other children.
• You will be send a letter with your child's measurement results identifying whether they are within the health range or not. This letter includes next steps with links to helpful information
• You are given the opportunity to opt your child out of the NCMP. Information about how to opt out is given in a letter or email from your child's school.

A longitudinal cohort analysis of data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) was recently conducted covering children in England between reception (aged 4 to 5 years old) in academic year 2013 to 2014 and year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years old) in academic year 2019 to 2020. Some of the key findings are highlighted below.

The majority of children were a healthy weight in reception (84.7%), of these:

• 78.8% remained a healthy weight in year 6; this proportion was higher among girls (81.2%) than boys (76.6%) and among children living in the least deprived areas (84.7%) than the most deprived (74.3%)
• smaller proportions of Bangladeshi (70.2%), black African (74.0%), black Caribbean (72.9%), Indian (73.1%) and Pakistani (71.1%) children remained a healthy weight in year 6, whereas higher proportions of white British children (80.4%) remained a healthy weight in year 6
• higher proportions of children from the East of England, South East and South West remained a healthy weight (80.2%, 81.6% and 81.8% respectively) in year 6
• 19.7% moved to a higher weight category (overweight, living with obesity or severe obesity); this proportion was lower among girls (17.2%) than boys (22.3%) and higher among children living in the most deprived areas (24.3%) than the least deprived (13.9%)

The full report can be found: 'Changes in the weight status of children between the first and final years of primary school'.

If you are concerned about your child's weight or eating habits and feel you need support, you can contact the Healthy Child Programme.

The Health4kids website can provide additional information

You can text Parent Chathealth for information/support