LONDON, December 12 /PRNewswire/ --

- Weighing Primary School Children is 'a Waste of Money', as Obesity Rates Soar

Weighing and measuring children when they enter and leave primary school is a waste of public money, as it is not tackling the obesity epidemic in England, Unite the Union said today (Friday, 12 December).

Instead, Unite, the largest union in the country, is calling for the immediate employment of 2,000 more qualified school nurses in England - nearly doubling the current workforce - to monitor and give advice on the overall health of school-aged children, on issues such as teenage pregnancy, and alcohol and drug misuse.

Unite is calling on government to ensure that all 152 primary care trusts in England commit money to each train ten new school nurses from September 2009.

Unite National Officer for Health, Karen Reay is seeking a meeting with Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in the New Year when she will raise the issue.

Unite's stand comes in the wake of the new National Child Measurement Programme figures, which revealed that a quarter of five year-olds and a third of eleven year-olds are overweight or obese.

Ros Godson, Unite/CPHVA Professional Officer for School-Aged Children said: 'We are appalled at this waste of money - which should be spent on helping families with overweight children - but is being frittered away in this expensive measuring exercise.'

'Weighing and measuring children as they enter and leave primary school is having no beneficial effect on their size, as statistics show they are just getting fatter. The government's laissez faire attitude is contributing to the build up of health problems, such as diabetes for future generations.'

'Children and their parents or carers should be able to rely on the regular support of their school nurse throughout their child's time in school for health concerns when their child isn't ill.'

'The chasm between government rhetoric and reality on the need to employ more school nurses has reached Grand Canyon proportions.'

Unite/CPHVA has expressed continuous concern that plans for every secondary school and its cluster of primary schools to have a specialist school nurse in post won't happen by the government's target date of 2010 - just 13 months away.

Notes to News Editors:

The latest NHS workforce statistics show there has been a 9.6% increase in the number of whole-time equivalent (WTE) school nurses from 815 to 893 in the year up to September, 2007. According to the DCSF, there were 3,343 secondary schools in England, as of January 2007.

For further information, please ring: Ros Godson, +44(0)7764-655-762 (mobile); Shaun Noble, Communications Officer, +44(0)20-7420-8951 (direct line), +44(0)7768-693-940 (mobile)