On Wednesday at Council we debated the Salford Local Area Agreement – a list of targets for Salford agreed between the City Council, partners and Government Office North West. We didn’t actually get to approve the document as a Full Council because it had already been submitted to the Government – a poor show really by the ruling Labour Cabinet who should know full well when the deadlines are!
The Advertiser have picked up on the document and have highlighted one piece of information within it – the number of obese children of reception age in Salford. They say:
MORE than one in 10 four year olds in Salford are overweight, according to a new report published this week.
Figures in the Salford Local Area Agreement show that more than 11 per cent of children in reception classes at the city’s primary schools were obese in the financial year 2007/08. The report – which also reveals that one in five children are obese by the time they hit 11 – was published ahead of a full council meeting at Swinton Civic Centre yesterday (Wednesday).
The authority has unveiled targets aimed at reducing the number of children who are overweight.
All well and good – but the last sentence isn’t actually true! The Labour Council has indeed approved a target for the number of obese children at the start of their reception year. You can read the document for yourself here. Unfortunately that target does not aim for a reduction in the number of 4-year-olds who are overweight.
According to the document, the current rate of obesity in Salford’s reception children is 11.74%. The Council’s agreed targets for 2009, 2010 and 2011 are 11.79%, 11.82% and 11.83% respectively.
So if there is a small increase in the number of obese 4-year-olds in Salford over the next 3 years then the Council will be deemed to have achieved the approved target! That’s almost as shocking as the obesity figures themselves…
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