Quality standard

This quality standard covers preventing children and young people (under 18) from becoming overweight or obese, including strategies to increase physical activity and promote a healthy diet in the local population. It also covers lifestyle weight management programmes for children and young people who are overweight or obese. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.

It does not cover assessing and managing obesity, specialist management or bariatric (weight loss) surgery, which are covered in NICE’s quality standard for obesity: clinical assessment and management. NICE has also published a quality standard for obesity in adults: prevention and lifestyle weight management programmes.

This quality standard does not cover areas of national policy, such as legislative changes and marketing of high-calorie drink and food products.

How to use NICE quality standards and how we develop them

Quality standards help you improve the quality of care you provide or commission. They apply in England and Wales (see the UK government website and Welsh government website). Decisions on how they apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland are made by ministers in the Scottish government and Northern Ireland Executive.

Find out how to use quality standards and how we develop them. We check our quality standards every August to make sure they are up to date.