Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how his Department is ensuring that NHS weight management services comply with NICE guidance on the use of (a) established community-based programmes and (b) combined behavioural and pharmacological support for obesity.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance on overweight and obesity management sets out the core components and standards for community-based weight management programmes, including multi-component behavioural interventions. Commissioning organisations, including local integrated care boards (ICBs), local authorities, and NHS England, and providers are expected to take the guidance into account when designing and delivering services. Support for compliance includes:

- detailed advice within the NICE guidance itself on the structure and content of effective community-based interventions;

- implementation support toolkits and practical guides from NICE; and

- funding through NHS England allocations for ICBs and the Public Health Grant for local authorities.

NICE guidance recommends that pharmacological treatments for obesity should only be offered alongside behavioural interventions, to provide ‘wraparound care’. ICBs have a legal duty to make NICE-recommended medicines available and are expected to ensure that patients prescribed these medicines also receive appropriate behavioural and lifestyle support. There is further support for ICBs in addition to that listed above, including:

- NHS England’s interim commissioning guidance and a centrally funded wraparound care service, Healthier You: Behavioural Support for Obesity Prescribing, with procurement underway for a longer-term offer; and

- additional funding to support the delivery of services within primary care and the cost of obesity medicines in line with the interim commissioning background.