ET

Teachers 'must warn parents of fat pupils'
By Sarah Womack, Political Correspondent

TEACHERS have a moral responsibility to tell parents if their children are too fat, the senior civil servant who runs England's schools said yesterday.

Sir Michael Bichard, permanent secretary at the Department for Education, told the Commons Public Accounts Committee that teachers had a "pastoral duty" towards pupils, which included telling parents if their children were obese.

He said: "It is something that has to be done sensitively, but it does need to be done in certain situations. If a head teacher is so concerned about a child's weight and believes it is affecting their life, he or she should tell the parents."

Andrew Holt, head teacher of Tewkesbury primary school in Gloucestershire, caused a furore by sending a letter to Shirley Beauchamp, because her five-year-old daughter Georgina weighed 6.5st. Mrs Beauchamp complained that it was none of the school's business and her husband was said to be "fuming".

But Sir Michael said obesity in children should be tackled to prevent more serious problems later in life. Delicate though the subject was, the results of not raising it were far worse than offending sensibilities. Gerry Steinberg, Labour MP for Durham, said parents who took children to fast food outlets "as a treat" should be told by their children, "you are taking me somewhere which could eventually kill me".

But he attacked the "ridiculous" politics of the nanny state that estimated that as many as one in five adults was obese. Baring his waist, he said that according to a health department cardboard dial which allowed a person to assess their body mass index he was virtually obese.

Mr Steinberg, who has recently lost 1.5st, said his weight was average. He said it was ridiculous that five permanent secretaries, or their equivalent, "on huge salaries", were giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on the issue of obesity in England.

He said: "Most fat people eat too much, sit on their backsides, do very little exercise, and only have themselves to blame. It is their fault that they are fat. What annoys me is that you five department heads are giving evidence along the lines that people ought to lose weight and take more exercise. We do go a little over the top on these things."

William Rickett, director general of transport strategy at the Department of Strategy, countered that just because people over-indulged "does not mean that the Government should not take an interest in matters of public policy".

Nigel Crisp, the NHS chief executive, said obesity cost the health service £500 million a year to treat. He pointed out that 70 per cent of diabetes cases could be prevented if obesity was properly addressed.

Geoffrey Podger, chief executive of the Food Standards Agency, said food labelling was partly to blame. He condemned manufacturers who described food items using words such as "80 per cent fat free", which meant the product consisted of 20 per cent fat.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

Answers

Teachers have enough on their plate without having to get engaged in this sort of wrangle. They should not be expected to do everything. What about the family doctors, for these particular families?

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

English kids don't see doctors nearly as often as American kids do. I don't think it's yet mandatory to have innoculations for school, as here, although I could be wrong. Nah, it's just another bureacrat gone berserk.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

What an epidemic of eponymous-sounding names, in this context. Crisp. Podger.Rickett. And a Steinberg talking about how many stones he has lost.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

Maybe parents do need to be told. After all, seems every year there are teenage girls who have babies, and the parents never suspected a thing...

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

Tell you what, if, when I had taken my son to a fast-food place as a special treat, he had shrilled, "you are taking me somewhere which could eventually kill me," I would have cheerfully half-fulfilled his wish.

This absurd suggestion is only a short step to prohibiting sales of heavy cream to those over 21 (and then only when the tax has been centrupled on it) and asking kids to report parents to their local block captain if they hear them discussing the glories of presumably-then-forbidden Godiva chocolates.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001