June 26 2001 - Wheldon Building, University of Wales, Bangor

Monday 25 March 2002

Minutes of the Nutrition Strategy Steering Group on Tuesday June 26 2001 at the Wheldon Building, University of Wales, Bangor.

Present:

Joy Whinney - Chair
Dr Jeremy Corson
Teresa Owen
Allan Davies
Sylvia Rickard
Dr F Lowe - presentation on Food Dudes
Dr G Roberts - presentation on Maesgeirchen Healthy Living Centre

FSA Wales

Dr Claire Paisley
Phil Morgan
Kathryn Corcoran
Jayne Griffiths

Apologies

Prof Claire Wilkinson
Prof Robert Pickard
Dr Jane Ludlow
Dr Chris Llewellyn
Keith Davies
Ginny Blakey

1. Chairmans Introduction

Joy Whinney thanked everyone for coming to the third meeting of the steering group and gave apologies for those unable to attend.

Joy explained to the group that two nominations had been received to represent individuals who had been unable to attend meetings to date.

These nominees were Sylvia Rickard from North Wales Health Authority and Sue Mably from Caerphilly CBC.

Sue was unable to attend this meeting but Joy extended a warm welcome to Sylvia Rickard.

Joy advised members that although Dr Jeremy Corson would shortly be leaving his current post he had agreed to remain on the steering group in a personal capacity.

Whilst discussing membership issues Joy added it had been suggested the group might want to invite an epidemiologist to join them.

FSA considered this was appropriate and canvassed members views. It was agreed Dr Ronan Lyons would be invited to join the group.
Action: FSA Secretariat

2. Minutes of 8 May meeting - Matters arising

2.1 The minutes of the last meeting were agreed

2.2 Matters Arising

Phil Morgan reported back to the group following the meeting with WDA's Agri-Food partnership. He advised the partnership was keen to work with the FSA but in discussions it was clear its interests were primarily of a commercial nature.

It was agreed the steering group would not be able to promote specific commercial projects but there was a need to keep in touch to ensure the healthy eating messages were being promoted.

Dr Jeremy Corson advised that the nutrition element of current public health training was negligible.

In the MPH course there was only an optional module covering nutrition but even this was basic.

He confirmed there appeared to be a gap in the syllabus for teaching academic nutrition.

The group considered this needed following up and it was agreed the FSA would contact David Seal of the Wales Centre for Health with a view to discussing the provision of a nutrition module for the Autumn 2002 syllabus.

Action: FSA Secretariat

Dr Claire Paisley confirmed she had met with Dr Corson and Prof Pickard to discuss preparation of a paper on the issue of surveillance methods and the need for sound statistical techniques to obtain an overall evidence base. A paper would follow in two weeks.

Action: Dr Paisley/Dr Corson/Prof Pickard

3. Food Dudes - Presentation by Prof Fergus Lowe

Prof Lowe began his presentation by advising that evidence highlighted the deficiencies of the average British diet; on average consumption of fruit and vegetables was slightly more than half of the WHO recommended daily intake.

In some population groups - notably the poor, the young and the 'Celts' - the position was even worse. Prof Lowe had developed a programme intended to encourage a sustained improvement in the amounts of fruit and vegetables consumed by children.

The programme is designed to influence behaviour change. It is based on teenage characters on whom younger children might model their eating habits. The programme is supported by a teaching pack.

The programme has been piloted in over 20 schools, with more than 3500 children involved to date.

Results appear to suggest that long term dietary changes are possible.

Furthermore the programme costs comparatively little to run and unlike the Department of Health free fruit initiative, it has a positive effect on consumption of both fruit and vegetables.

In the discussion that followed members agreed the sustained increase in fruit and vegetable consumption had been encouraging and that the Food Dudes project appeared to reflect good value for money.

Prof Lowe confirmed the programme was available for use/development if the steering group were interested.

4. Maesgeirchen Healthy Living Centres - Presentation by Dr Glynne Roberts

Dr Glynne Roberts gave a brief background to the estate highlighting the high incidence of unemployment and long term illness.

He listed the organisations working in partnership on the project and outlined the methods used to identify the needs of the estate.

Dr Roberts continued by outlining the general concerns of the residents which included poor provision of services, inadequate public transport, absence of 'natural' group leaders and problems with policing.

In voicing these concerns residents requested help and advice on amongst other things; health child support and advice; caf¿; better availability of fruit and vegetables, food co-operative, community shopping rota and adult education courses (inc. food hygiene and cookery skills).

A project manager would be appointed in January 2002 with the centre being fully operational by May 2002.

It was hoped that facilities and services provided through the centre would ensure improved information on/access to a range of health and social services including healthy eating; skills enhancement; links to exercise facilities and improving community morale.

During discussions that followed the issue of measuring the projects success was raised. Dr Roberts advised that IMSSCA had placed a bid to undertake research on the estate and an evaluation of the project would be included. Joy Whinney advised that FSA were looking at developing a 'Get Cooking' style project which might benefit the estate.

5. Discussion

5.1 Priority Paper

Claire Paisley introduced this paper which put forward suggestions for consideration by the steering group in attempting to reach a decision about priorities for the strategy.

These considerations included priority groups, priorities for the Assembly, priorities that are shared responsibilities and dietary priorities.

The paper highlighted potential priority groups whilst suggesting the strategy needed to aim at improving nutrition among the whole population.

The steering group agreed that although the strategy would aim to improve diet generally there were certain sections of the population whose needs demanded specific action.

The group accepted that local needs might differ due to their demographic make up and some flexibility was necessary.

It was observed that Health Improvement plans were based around Government priorities and it would not therefore be advisable for the strategy to put forward different priorities.

It was agreed the strategy's priorities would need to be linked to targets set by the Assembly.

It was also agreed that the strategy should not ignore what were already seen as priorities for Wales.

Discussion then centred on the priority groups. It was felt the groups as listed currently embraced the whole population and some reassessment was needed.

Members also made suggestions of other groups, these included producers/retailers, legislators and local government (re infrastructure).

It was felt that whilst these interests should be involved in the development of the strategy, for practical reasons the aim should be to identify no more than 2 or 3 priority groups.

Recognising that success of the strategy would depend on effecting long-term cultural shift, it would be essential to focus efforts on children.

Middle-aged men were also considered to be a group that were at present difficult to target through the normal processes and it was agreed these should be a priority group.

It was agreed that Dr Paisley would rework her paper which would be sent out to steering group members for their comments shortly.

Action: Dr Claire Paisley

5.2 Catering for Health

Joy Whinney circulated copies of a publication 'Catering for Health'. She explained this was a guide for teaching healthier catering practices which had been written by the British Nutrition Foundation and published by the FSA and the Department of Health.

The booklet was however currently only available in England and it was thought this might be an opportunity for the steering group to endorse a bilingual version applicable to Wales to be launched in the Autumn.

Members were content and it was agreed work would be put in hand to review the content from a Welsh perspective.

Action: FSA Secretariat

5.3 Networking/Database

Joy Whinney raised the issue of the group setting up a network and asked members for their views.

It was suggested there was a need to let people know what work was being done not just by the steering group but also by the FSA, NAW and other organisations around the table.

It was also considered important to let others know what resources/materials/information was available.

Joy suggested the group might be able to fund the development and maintenance of a network.

There was consensus that networking was a useful tool and examples were given where it was felt this had worked well.

Discussions centred on where enquiries might be directed and who might be included in such a network and members agreed to give this some further consideration.

Action: Steering Group Members

5.4 BNF CD Rom

In the absence of Prof Pickard, Joy Whinney gave a brief demonstration of the British Nutrition Foundations interactive CD Rom.

This resource has been developed with the intention of encouraging secondary school students to explore food and nutrition concepts. This was launched in England in May this year.

Joy confirmed a welsh language version is being financed by FSA Wales and copies of the English language version were being purchased for distribution to secondary schools in Wales.

These should be available later this year. Copies of the disc were circulated to members for information.

5.5 Next Steps

Joy Whinney confirmed the next meeting was scheduled for Thursday 27 September in Cardiff. The timetable includes a series of workshops would take place between October to December.

Joy circulated a paper, which attempted to set out the aims and roles of the workshops, suggesting they would enable an examination of priority areas and bring in a wider expertise and knowledge.

It was agreed the FSA would organise and facilitate most of the workshops with help from Steering Group members and others in determining format, content, participants etc.

Members agreed this was an appropriate way forward and it was agreed a more detailed list of workshops would be presented to members for their further consideration and comments before the next meeting.

Action: FSA Secretariat

6. AOB

Joy Whinney circulated a statement on openness to members of the steering group and asked if they were content. Members had no objections.