The Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee of Tower Hamlets Council is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, 3 February 2026. The meeting's agenda includes discussions on the Young Mayors team and an update on the Child Healthy Weight programme.

Young Mayors Team

The Sub-Committee is scheduled to receive a report on the Young Mayors team. This report will cover the team's leadership and engagement activities. It is intended to provide the Committee with an opportunity to hear directly from young people about their experiences, concerns, and aspirations, and how these are influencing the youth services in the borough. The Sub-Committee will be asked to note the young people's attendance and presentation and provide any further comments and feedback.

Healthy Weight Update

An update on the Child Healthy Weight programme is also scheduled for discussion. This follows a report published in May 2024 by the Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee (CESSC) on Child Healthy Weight, which made eight recommendations across three themes: Food, Physical Activity, and Psychology and Culture. A Child Healthy Weight Scrutiny Challenge Session Action Plan was developed to address these recommendations.

The upcoming report will provide an update on the progress made to date. This includes improvements to school meals in primary and secondary schools, the development of the health and wellbeing offer in Young Tower Hamlets, and a healthy weight training programme for health and children's professionals. Draft proposals to the Local Plan aimed at improving play, exercise, and green spaces are also mentioned, alongside the provision of healthy food through food banks and vouchers, and audits and award schemes to enhance the healthiness of social spaces for young people.

The Child Healthy Weight programme has been reviewed, and future work will be organised into three programmes: Move well, Eat well, and Specialist support. This approach will be aligned with adult healthy weight programmes to promote a whole-family approach. The Sub-Committee will be asked to note the progress against the previous recommendations and the next steps for progressing the child healthy weight agenda in the borough.

The report details progress on specific recommendations, such as monitoring Free School Meal uptake, ensuring youth services meet healthy eating aims, and engaging children in food production. It also covers efforts to maximise children's access to green spaces and sports facilities, and initiatives to make fast food outlets healthier. Furthermore, it addresses ensuring children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities benefit from healthy food provision and access to sports, and researching the needs of underweight children and those with eating disorders.

The report highlights that while there have been some improvements in the prevalence of unhealthy weight in the borough, with Tower Hamlets now below the national average for overweight children at reception age, challenges remain. By Year 6, the borough still has a higher proportion of children with unhealthy weight status compared to the national average. The report also notes that Tower Hamlets has a higher proportion of underweight children, partly due to ethnic variations in body composition. The prevalence of severe obesity at both reception and Year 6 remains static and higher than the national average.

The review of the Child Healthy Weight programme identified that framing the issue around child healthy weight could be unwieldy and risked focusing too much on individual behaviour rather than systemic changes. The proposed future structure into three pillars aims to address energy intake, energy expenditure, and access to specialist support, using clearer language and potentially incorporating adult health and wellbeing.