PCTs slow to bite on healthy eating policy

Only one in five English primary care trusts contacted by Sustain has developed a food strategy to identify and overcome local barriers to healthy eating.

Half of the PCTs without a strategy were not working on one, 30 per cent were developing one and some did not even know they had an obligation to do so.

According to the survey of 115 PCTs carried out by Sustain’s food poverty project, the most common reason given for inaction was the absence of funding. It concludes that in England ‘a lack of money, a lack of impetus and a lack of clarity about what is required are causing a potentially valuable exercise to run into the sand’.

The Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food was published by the government in December 2002 in response to Sir Donald Curry’s review of the food system in England.

“The connection between food production and health is not being made—Vicky Hird, Sustain”

It outlined a commitment to develop a national strategy for all aspects of healthy eating and a requirement that local plans would set out ‘appropriate action’ to tackle obstacles to healthy eating.

The job of co-ordinating the local task was given to the director of public health in each of England’s 300 PCTs, but many of the PCTs contacted by Sustain said they realised the importance of the issue, but did not have funding to allocate to it.

Where a PCT did have a strategy, the research found that it had often been started prior to the creation of PCTs, which has had the effect of halting or delaying initiatives.

Courtney Van de Weyer, food poverty project officer at Sustain, said: ‘The most important thing is to increase the funding. Money needs to be given to set up local food strategies’.

She added that if PCT public health directors had ‘a message coming down from on high’ they would make it more of a priority. ‘It would legitimise setting money aside for it. At the moment no-one is championing it and barely anyone knows about it.’