National Update from Change4Life

Change4Life: One Year On

Last month a new report on the progress made by the Change4Life campaign during its first year was published online. ‘Change4Life: One Year On’ reviews the creation of a movement, the stages of the campaign.

You can read or download it here:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_112529

And, this week a new report highlighting the impact of the cross-government obesity strategy on individuals and communities was published. ‘Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: Two Years On’ sets out how the Government is helping people to make healthier choices, creating an environment that promotes healthy weight, ensuring effective services are available for those at risk and strengthening the delivery system to support frontline services.

You can read or download the report here:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_113486

Adults Campaign

Since launch on 20 February, the adults campaign is doing well:
• We have received over 7,000 online registrations from men and women and over 500 calls to the call centre.
• Already 146,000 ‘Swap It, Don’t Stop It’ leaflets have been ordered from the DH Orderline.
• We’ve published some great swaps content for adults on the Change4Life website: http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/Justforme.aspx

As this is a new audience, we are keen to recruit new Change4Life Local Supporters from amongst those who work on health improvement initiatives with adults – in healthcare, local authorities, workplaces, the third sector, communities etc. If you are aware of colleagues who might lend their support and benefit from the adults resources and web content, then please share this information with them. They can register on the ‘Partners and Supporters’ area of our website: www.nhs.uk/change4life

In a complimentary initiative, the Department for Transport has re-launched its Cycle to Work scheme, Find out more here: www.cycletoworkguarantee.org.uk

Some other initiatives that offer support for adults include:

• Walk For Health, which offers a ‘Walk Finder’ at http://www.wfh.naturalengland.org.uk/• Free swim offers: http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/sport/5809.aspx• Free swimming lessons: call 0800 14 222 14 (participating local authorities only)
• Muckin4Life: take part in environmental projects at http://muckin4life.direct.gov.uk/• NHS MidLifeCheck recently launched online health checker: https://www.midlifecheck.co.uk/• ‘My local area’ search the Change4Life database for local activities: www.nhs.uk/change4life

Employer’s Toolkit

We have recently created an employer’s toolkit to help us target overweight and obese men and women. We are asking employers (in both major organisation and SMEs) to support our adults campaign by showing the business benefits of encouraging their staff to make healthier lifestyle choices at work. From 15 March employer’s can order the toolkit by calling the Change4Life call centre on 0300 123 1502 and from 22 March the toolkit can be downloaded from the ‘Partners and Supporters’ area of our website: www.nhs.uk/change4life

BME update

This month sees the launch of our Change4Life activity aimed at Pakistani, Bangladeshi and West African communities. This activity includes TV commercials – featuring celebrities of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and West African origin who are well known and respected within their communities – and advertorials in key ethnic titles such as Urdu Times, Surma and African Voice.The campaign also promotes the Change4Life BME helpline (0300 123 1099) which families can call to request an information pack. The pack will include an English/Urdu or English/Bengali information booklet with tips and healthy traditional recipes aimed at Pakistani and Bangladeshi families. There will also be a booklet for West African families in English.

We are developing a BME toolkit that will include tips and advice for those working with families and posters and flyers in three languages. It will also include pre-recorded physical activity and cooking demonstrations, which will be available to download. The toolkit will be available in mid April but we have made the posters and flyers available to download from the DH website now: www.dh.gov.uk/change4life

Change4Life British Asian Sports Awards

The British Asian Sports Awards is a very high profile event in the Asian calendar and this year Change4Life was the partner sponsor of the event, which took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on 6th February. It was a star-studded affair attended by many celebrities from the world of sport, entertainment and politics, such as Amir Khan and Denise Lewis. Change4Life was represented on the night by Mike Farrar the Sport, Physical Activity and Health Tsar. He presented the final and most prestigious award of the evening, for British Asian Sports Personality of the Year, to Isa Guhar who was recognised for her role in England’s World Cup winning women’s cricket team.



Commercial Partners

Mars Petcare UK, owner of brands including the dog food brands Pedigree and Cesar, has pledged to support Walk4Life by promoting healthier lifestyles to dog owners. They estimate that 5 million households in the UK now own a pet dog, which could become a key factor in the battle against obesity. To support this message, Mars is creating a new website which will encourage dog owners to make the most of walking their pet, as part of a healthier lifestyle. Once completed, the website will be promoted via brand websites, puppy packs, breeder packs, customer partnerships, leaflets and through emails to an established mailing list.

Aviva, the insurance group, is supporting Change4Life by promoting Change4Life messages to their customers that align with their MyHealthCounts programme. This private medical insurance programme encourages Aviva customers to lead healthier lifestyles, whether through small steps or large leaps, and rewards them with lower premiums. Aviva is also supporting Change4Life through its position as the number one sponsor of UK Athletics, using the Aviva UKA Academy grassroots programmes to promote active behaviour, as well as providing exposure for the campaign at Aviva's televised athletics events.

The Fitness Industry Association ran their MoreActive4Life campaign between July and August 2009, with 1000+ participating gyms and local authority providers offering a free day pass. There were also free walking groups and subsidised in-gym activity. 81,000 people took up the day passes and over 270,000 were involved in the walking groups and in-gym activity. In partnership with fellow Change4Life partner MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition .... Do It !) they launched the second stage of the MoreActive4Life campaign at the end of 2009, now running in 2010. It uses the Change4Life messaging as a platform throughout and is an innovative brief intervention specifically designed to enable the Health and Fitness Sector to proactively target and appeal to at risk segments of the population and help them lead fitter, healthier and happier lives.

Start4Life Roadshow

The Start4Life team have put together a series of free events to help introduce pregnant women and new parents to the most up-to-date expert advice on baby nutrition and activity. All the locations have been selected because of their low breastfeeding initiation rates and will take place in local children’s centres. They will focus on giving visitors more information on breastfeeding, introducing solid foods, active play and access to health professionals in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. The events started at the end of February and details have been posted on the Start4Life website: www.nhs.uk/start4life.

My Change4Life Cookbook

We've just launched a new online game on the Change4Life website. 'My Change4Life Cookbook' aims to make food fun for kids. It allows kids to customise their own cookbook by inserting a photo of themselves and picking a chef’s hat, then picking recipes from the Cook4life recipe book. They can choose their favourite healthy recipes, get tips on being a top chef and even make a shopping list. The idea is that once they are involved with making meals, they are more likely to start enjoying them - and so are the parents.

This web tool forms part of online offer emailed out to all registered users and compliments the fourth pack sent out to families by post in February. You can get to the 'My Change4Life Cookbook' via http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/MakeChangeMyCookbook.aspx

Let’s Dance update

The Let's Dance competition has now closed and we've received over 99 entries for the 'Dance with Diversity' competition and 79 of these are up on YouTube. You can view the entries at: www.youtube.com/letsdance. We will be announcing the winner very soon online and in the press.

New resources for schools

Some of our schools colleagues have given us feedback about additional Change4Life materials they would find useful in the classroom and so with support from DCSF, we are updating our schools pack to include some exciting new resources.

The updated schools pack, which will be available from early summer, will contain a set of six new posters, designed to speak directly to primary school pupils and suggesting simple lifestyle changes that can help them become healthier. There will also be a new tool to help teachers chart their pupils’ progress in the classroom, as well as an educational snakes and ladders game, reward stickers and info on healthy lifestyles for staff.

Local activity

We want to continue sharing information about great regional and local Change4Life activity, so here’s a taster of some of the current projects going on around England:

Let’s Dance with Change4Life in the North East – with support from Public Health North East and local partners, tango dance teacher and performer Liliana Tolomei has set up a series of free classes and social dances. They take place on the Let’s Dance weekend (6 and 7 March) in various locations in the north east including Dance City, Eldon Leisure Centre, St Joseph’s, Gateshead, Benfield Centre for Sporting Excellence and Wallsend Memorial Hall. Tango, jive, salsa and break dancing performances by professional dance couples and local groups are also promised. More info: www.lilianatolomei.com

Let’s Dance with Change4Life: Yorkshire Dance – Yorkshire and Humber area have put together a project called A Taste of Dance aimed at young people in the area. Working with Youth Dance Hubs and regional dance organisations the project will deliver new dance activity at targeted groups of young people. For more info email Kim at youth@yorkshiredance.com

Bristol City Council has made great use of all the Change4Life tools, resources and sub-brands to build on their local activity and online content. Highlights include promotion of their Swim4Life free swimming programme which has been hugely successful with 109,000 swims in the first seven months and has been granted an Olympic Inspire Mark (www.bristol.gov.uk/freeswimming) and their Active Family Challenge, a 12-week pilot project aiming to increase physical activity levels in families. More info: www.bristol.gov.uk/change4life

Sheffield Healthy Town – Sheffield, one of the nine Healthy Towns, has an impressive city-wide programme of Change4Life activity on the go, including encouraging more women to breastfeed with a peer support service and plans to launch a breastfeeding-friendly public place award scheme; Bike It! school scheme; local walking maps, and establishing a network of community health champions. More info:

February 20th see’s the launch of the change4life adult campaign – ‘Swap it, Don’t Stop It’

Launching the adults advertising campaign on TV, online, on posters and bus rears, also working with the Daily Mirror in a media partnership to support the advertising. The campaign is aimed at 45-65 year old men and women, as we know that the majority of them (about 71%) can be classed as either overweight or obese. Six behaviours have been developed that all sit under the banner of 'swaps' and house different exercise and nutritional goals. A range of resources will be available to support the campaign including an adults leaflet, an FAQ sheet, language and brand guidelines and an employers toolkit.

If your work involves helping adults to lead a healthy lifestyle you may find this campaign and its resources very helpful. It is worth noting that although the campaign and resources are actively targeted at 45-65 year old adults, the six behaviours can be adopted by all adults over 18 years.

For more information about the campaign, a visual of the behaviours and a summary of the adult insight research please visit the DH website www.dh.gov.uk/change4life.

For the February launch, a redesigning the Change4Life website homepage so that adults and families alike can visit the website and find information targeted at them. This will involve two main buttons – one saying ‘Change4Life for me’ which will lead to our new content aimed at adults, and another saying ‘Change4Life for my kids’ leading to existing Change4Life content. The advertising campaign will direct adults to the website to register (45-65 year olds will be sent a consumer pack) where they will find information about the behaviours and a short self-assessment tool where users can assess how they are doing with various diet and activity goals and identify swaps that might be appropriate for them. More content will be added in March.

Let's Dance

You may have seen the coverage of Diversity launching the national competition on BBC Breakfast, This Morning and Newsround on Wednesday. We now have the 'Let's Dance with Change4life' 'Let's Dance with Change4life'link


'Let's Dance with Change4life' link

The vibrant site includes lots of ideas from body popping for beginners, steps for the foxtrot, to simple games that can be enjoyed at home there’s so many fun and different ways to get up and active. Britain's Got Talent winners, Diversity have also put together a series of special dance classes to get you busting funky moves just like them.

There are video demos of dance moves and music to get you started!!

Also a competition where 5-12 year olds are encourage to send in a video of their dance moves or dance group to the music supplied on the website for a chance to dance with Diversity or start in the C4L pop video. Details of which can be found here
Link

Start4Life

Start4Life

Start4Life is here to help parents give their baby the foundations for a better start in life. By introducing healthier habits right from birth, you can give them the building blocks for a healthier and happier future.

Cook4Life Recipe Book

Me Sized Meals

Try this fun and easy to use Me Sized Meals Tips tool

Me Sized Meals Tips

Change4Life meets the Simpsons

From Monday, 5 October to Christmas Day 2009 inclusive, Change4Life will sponsor The Simpsons on Channel 4.

This provides Change4Life with an excellent opportunity to communicate in an impactful and credible way with its target families. The show is very popular with them and is also watched at dinner time, an ideal time to remind parents about what and how much their kids are eating and encourage them to get and about, rather than vegging out.

Change4Life has always sought innovative and imaginative ways of influencing behavioural change, which is demonstrated by the whole style of the campaign, and this sponsorship is a continuation of its approach.

The Simpsons


A hugely popular and long-running show in this country, The Simpsons provides Change4Life with an opportunity to partner with a TV programme that gives the campaign the most exposure, impact and credibility with its target audience.

While some characters in The Simpsons – Homer, in particular – are well known for having a poor diet and taking little exercise, Change4Life seeks to offer support towards a healthier lifestyle, rather than criticise. The family also displays a number of positive behaviours. They often sit around the dining table together as a family, are clearly a close and tight-knit unit and Bart and Lisa lead very active lifestyles: Bart is known for his love of skateboarding, for example.

Format and timings

The Simpsons is broadcast on Channel 4 every weekday evening at 6pm.

Sponsorship ‘idents’ at the beginning, middle and end of each show will feature the characters from the Change4Life advertising campaign in a number of different scenarios. The strapline at the end of each of them is “Change4Life – supporting The Simpsons. Sometimes.”

The line is designed to demonstrate in a humourous way that Change4Life supports many aspects of The Simpsons, but not all of them. It celebrates the positive elements of the family’s behaviour and, by implication, encourages viewers to make changes for life for their own families in terms of diet and activity levels.

Target audience

The Simpsons on Channel 4 is a highly popular TV programme for Change4Life target families and is among the top 20 highest rating programmes among them. It also has a very broad appeal and attracts audiences from across the entire social spectrum. The sponsorship will, therefore, help the campaign to reach a high proportion of families who need encouragement and support to improve their diet and levels of physical activity, as well as reaching them in a way which is both credible and accessible.

We investigated the possibility of sponsoring The Simpsons on Sky One but it already had a sponsor. While Sky One shows the most recent series of the show, the programme’s viewing figures on this channel are substantially lower than those on Channel 4 – BARB figures for week ending 9 August showed that The Simpsons attracted an audience of 0.67 million on Sky One, compared to 2.04 million on Channel 4.

Change4Life Campaign Update

1. Autumn activity

This Autumn, Change4Life marketing activity will focus on promoting 3 of the 8 Change4Life behaviours: sugar swaps, me sized meals, and 5 A DAY.

A new Change4Life TV commercial launches on 19 October and runs until 15 November. The advert shows the all-too-familiar tale of how kids often get their own way when it comes to eating unhealthy snacks. A Snack Swapper – a wheel device that shows healthy options to sugary, salty or fatty snacks and meals – is seen in the ad (see visual attached) and at the end informs the public they can call Change4Life to request one.

We will also be distributing 400,000 Snack Swappers via a magazine partnership, and over a million through Schools, Sure Start Children’s Centres and Child Minders. Additionally we will make them available to order in bulk via the DH Orderline (w/c 19 October – Product Code: C4L085). www.orderline.dh.gov.uk




This activity will be supported by Autumn consumer packs, called ‘eat happy this autumn’, being mailed directly to 200,000 families who have already signed up to our customer relationship marketing programme. This pack is a follow-up pack to the Summer Survival Kit, and, like the TV, will focus on healthy food options. The pack will consist of a variety of items including tips and recipes, me size meals, sugar swaps and 5 A DAY info, competitions, crosswords, puzzles, a prize draw and a Snack Swapper.

The Change4Life website will feature complementary content including a variation on the Snack Swapper wheel (using drop down menus) along with a new recipe section and sugar swap, me size meals and 5 A DAY information.

The Change4Life activity complements the next phase of the Food Standards Agency’s public awareness campaign on salt, launching on 5 October. The campaign aims to highlight how people can make a difference to their salt intake by checking the labels of the foods they eat regularly and choosing the lower salt option. It will feature TV, press and poster advertising as well as providing more detailed advice to consumers through leaflets and online at: www.eatwell.gov.uk/salt

2. BME activity

Dates for a number of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) focused half-day conferences have been confirmed and venues booked - programmes are currently being finalised. Each location will focus on one or two specific BME communities and there will be two conferences in each of the locations:

• one providing health professionals with the cultural insight for dealing with some of the barriers to behaviour change for families in our target communities;
• one targeting community and religious leaders, seeking their endorsement of C4L as key influencers in their communities and arming them with information to provide help and advice to families.

Local dates and target communities are as follows:

Bradford - Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities
18th November: Stakeholder/Health Professionals
19th November: Community Leaders


A consumer facing poster and flyer will be made available to delegates to distribute in their communities, which will direct families to a helpline where they will be able to order a BME specific information pack (English only or bi-lingual). A toolkit of material is being developed for non-participating regions and will include a DVD of the event presentations – this will be available later this Autumn. The consumer facing BME campaign is due to launch in January 2010.

If you have any queries about this activity please contact Julie Vazquez: julie.vazquez@dh.gsi.gov.uk

3. Campaign Analysis

The campaign continues to go from strength to strength. This month the Change4Life website hit the 1 million mark for total visits to the site.

Local Supporter numbers are making a steady climb – our current number is 22,605. Local support is a vital part of embedding Change4Life and we are keen to encourage more people to register with the campaign: www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/Partners.aspx

Levels of awareness, recognition and comprehension remain high amongst mothers. Please find attached the latest summary slide for some of the key Tracker Survey statistics. In August we added new questions on the tracker survey, which aim to further explore how the brand is perceived. Respondents to the survey are now being given pairs of statements about Change4Life (e.g. It is judgmental vs. it is supportive) and asked to give it a score from 1 to 5 (where 1 is judgmental and 5 is supportive). Please find attached a brand metrics table that shows the mean scores for each set of statements for mothers and for adults. This is an exceptionally encouraging set of results - Change4Life scores over 4 for over half of the attributes amongst mothers and never falls below 3.4 for adults. Overall, it would seem that Change4Life is perceived by mothers to be clear, trustworthy, supportive and to fit into their lifestyles. This is a great start but a tough act to maintain over time!

The How Are The Kids questionnaire analysis is just in. Looking at the period February to August 2009 we’ve pulled out a few of key facts and figures from the analysis. The questionnaire was conceived to help people recognise that their own families may be at risk and provide a means to engage them in a long-term customer relationship marketing programme. The questions were constructed around the eight behaviours and encouraged parents to re-evaluate their children’s performance against them, with the promise of a free personalised action plan on completion.

In total we received 266,955 clean responses (a small percentage of the total responses were returned with errors or information missing and these had to be discarded). This number of respondents gives us information about the eating and exercise habits of 422,345 children aged between 2-16 years.

Over 11 million of the questionnaires were distributed through a range of channels as well as the questionnaire being made available online. 30% of responses (80,044) were submitted online. The top five offline sources came from:

• Schools: 19.1% (50,952) - questionnaires were distributed within fruit and veg boxes
• Targeted Door Drop: 17.7% (47,384)
• Healthy Start Mailing: 8.3% (22,025)
• Third Party: 5.1% (13,606)
• Face To Face Activity: 5.1% (13,562)

Overall, this was very well targeted activity. 87% of responders were female. 64% of responses came from families with at least one child aged 5-11. The high risk cluster groups in England were the most responsive to the questionnaire (72% in Clusters 1, 2, 3 and 5, with nearly a third in Cluster 5). Respondents were asked to opt-in to receive future Change4Life communications and a massive number did so - over 80% - this is an unusually high opt-in rate. Clusters 1, 2, 3 and 5 were more likely to opt-in to postal communications, phone and text, while low-risk clusters (4 and 6) preferred email.

The How Are The Kids survey is still available online: www.nhs.uk/change4life



4. Commercial Partners activity



PepsiCo has just launched a Play4Life poster advertising campaign to encourage parents to take their kids out to play more. The posters do not carry any PepsiCo branding but feature top international football players Thierry Henry and Frank Lampard. Please see attached Play4Life poster visuals.

You can read up on some of our other partners here: www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/OurPartnersLogos.aspx




5. Early Years Toolkit

The Early Years Toolkit has been produced and will be available to download by early October from the Partners and Supporters area on the Change4Life website. The toolkit is aimed at Local Supporters working with toddlers and pre-school children between the age of one and four. We are sending the toolkit directly to over 3,000 Sure Start Children’s Centres. Included in the toolkit is practical advice, low-cost healthy recipes, tips for fussy eaters, posters, stickers and ideas of how to keep youngsters moving around and having fun. A small number of the toolkits are available to order on 0300 123 3434 (from early October). www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/PartnerTools.aspx

6. Smallsteps4Life

From October, teachers are being encouraged to get involved with smallsteps4life – an innovative programme that can be used in the classroom to motivate and support pupils as they take small steps in improving their health and wellbeing. Smallsteps4life is a sub brand of Change4Life and aims to help primary and secondary pupils to set themselves small, achievable lifestyle challenges (either as individuals or as groups) around three themes - Healthy Eating, Getting Active, Feeling Good. The project is lead by the Food Standards Agency. Teachers and young people have had an important role in helping to develop the website, which will enable schools to promote what they are doing and share their experiences to inspire other schools across the UK. The website will be live in the next few days: www.direct.gov.uk/smallsteps4life

7. Swimming Stroke competition winner

Andy Burnham announced the winner of the Change4Life ‘invent a new swimming stroke’ competition. The announcement came at the Great North Swim and the winner was Ella, aged 11, with her 'Dolphinella' creation. Ella and her friends were filmed recently at their local swimming pool for a news story on the BBC's Newsround:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8260000/newsid_8269900/8269909.stm

Change4Life Toolkits

http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/PartnerTools.aspx

Toolkits Available

Bike4Life Toolkit
Breakfast4Life Toolkit
Change4Life Local Supporter Toolkit
Change4Life Schools
PackSwim4Life Toolkit
Play4Life Toolkit
Walk4Life Toolkit

September will see the launch of the Change4Life Early Years Toolkit. This will be available for Local Supporters working with toddlers and preschool children aged between one and five. The toolkit is full of practical advice on how childcare providers can support parents and carers to help young children to eat well and move more. The advice is geared specifically towards this age group and differs from the core campaign, aimed at children aged between five and eleven, as only six of the eight behaviour changes are relevant (‘60 active minutes’ and ‘cut back fat’ are not included as they are not relevant to this age group).

The toolkit will be delivered to 3,000 Sure Start Children’s Centres and will also be available to all childcare providers to download via the Change4Life website.

Start4Life Toolkit –



Change4Life are in the early stages of developing a toolkit primarily aimed at Midwives, Health Visitors and GPs. It is proposed that the toolkit will be available to order from the DH Orderline in November and potentially from key royal colleges.