Part 6: Progress so far

Strand 3: The Reality of a Whole Systems Approach

Video

Learning Objectives

After watching this section, you should be able to:

  • Describe how evidence collection and health needs assessment recommendations were translated into specific actions, roles, and pilots
  • Identify examples of how the whole systems approach to healthy weight has been embedded into food environment actions
  • Describe how new roles and innovation pilots have been used to build capacity and reach specific population groups

Key Points

  • Senior leadership involvement from the outset supported pulling together evidence and creating momentum
  • The council’s healthy work and wellbeing strategy used the Building Blocks of Health framing to help ensure a consistent flow of message
  • Evidence collection helped generate recommendations, including controls on hot food takeaways, junk food advertising, and school food
  • Workshops evolved from an initial broad event towards more targeted, focused events over time
  • New roles were created to build capacity in specific parts of the system
  • Innovation, piloting, and commissioning brought in new delivery partners (e.g. retail marketing, training) and targeted specific population groups, such as antenatal women, 13–17 year olds, and ethnic minority groups

Further Reading

Add recommended readings or links for this segment.

Knowledge Check

Complete the questions below before moving on.

According to this section, which award is Oxfordshire described as currently working towards achieving “gold” status for in 2026?

The correct answer is The Food Places Award. This section describes several frameworks Oxfordshire is working towards, including the Food Places Award — for which they are currently going for gold in 2026 — alongside Food for Life (used in catering and school settings) and the Wales School Framework (combining physical activity, wellbeing and food in schools). The other options are real award schemes but are not the ones named in this section as the 2026 gold target.

  • False — there is no “Eatwell Guide Award” named in this section.
  • False — the Healthy Schools Rating Scheme is not named in this section.
  • False — the Better Health at Work Award is not named in this section.
  • True

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