Dominic Harrison, Cllr Mustafa Desai, Chris Clayton from BwD CCG and Cllr Mohammed Khan at the signing of the declaration
Published Monday 23 October 2017 at 15:10
Blackburn with Darwen has become the first borough to see its Council and Clinical Commissioning Group join forces to sign a joint healthy weight declaration in the country.
The Local Authority Declaration on Healthy Weight contains fourteen common commitments that all Local Authorities that sign up to it agree to pursue, along with a set of themes specific to the local area.
The local commitments include promoting active travel with the launch of the Weavers Wheel; supporting the Daily Mile scheme and food policies for Primary Schools; food and physical activity policies and support for early years settings; creation of a Food Alliance for BwD to address food poverty and food sustainability and working towards the borough’s designation as a Breastfeeding Friendly Borough and a Sugar Smart Borough.
The declaration is the work of the Food Active partnership – a collaborative programme made up of Public Health Directors across the North West.
All Lancashire Unitary and Upper Tier authorities have now signed the declaration providing a senior level commitment to tackling unhealthy weight across the County.
The charter is the first achievement of a three-year strategy by Blackburn with Darwen Council to encourage residents to move more, eat well and maintain a healthy weight.
The Eat Well, Shape Up, Move More Strategy 2016-19 aims to encourage positive lifestyle changes that enable local people to improve their health and wellbeing by supporting an environment where physical activity and healthy eating is the easy choice for everyone throughout their lives.