The event saw a discussion centred on Amsterdam's long-term, multi-faceted approach to tackling childhood obesity, the Amsterdam Healthy Weight Programme, first launched in 2012 after discussions began in 2004. The programme responds to excess weight in children, and the resulting physical and mental health impacts. The discussion touched on the importance of a “learning approach” in approaching a complex issue that requires a whole-systems approach. The key learnings from the Amsterdam programme underscored the importance of perseverance, patience, managing expectations and network building. The intention in Amsterdam is to impact children’s health in the city over the course of a twenty-year period - a generation, working from birth to adulthood.

Professor Jaap C. Seidell, a leading academic in the Amsterdam Healthy Weight Programme consortium, detailed how the Amsterdam approach implemented a socio-ecological model to affect behaviour, targeting families, schools, professionals, and communities, with an understanding of the role of each in a whole-systems approach as well as the importance of the way the network operates as a whole. In the strategy, there is consideration both for young people living with excess weight as well as consideration of impacting neighbourhoods for the purpose of prevention.

Professor Seidell was clear that the leverage points available to the City Government are impacting the environments surrounding families, not taking responsibility for each individual’s single choices. One of the most fundamental shifts occurred in Amsterdam in influencing the long-standing belief across stakeholders that excess weight is an issue of individual responsibility to recognising it as a collective responsibility.

The Municipal Government, therefore, is seeking to make the healthy choice the normal choice, by creating supportive environments that drive healthier consumption for all children. Professor Seidell spoke to Amsterdam's strategy of aiming for a balance between healthy and unhealthy food providers in any given community, allowing municipalities to consider health in town planning decisions.

The process behind determining how and where to intervene in the food system is informed by participatory action research, a research methodology that involves researchers and participants collaborating to understand social issues and take actions to bring about social change, emphasising action by those affected by the issues being discussed. The impact of this is more radical outcomes, and increased buy-in to solutions. This can also lead to a transfer of community ownership of solutions that ensures longevity of integrated approaches.

A further key learning to date is integrated interventions in schools, while not primarily focused on obesity, led to broader benefits such as improved school performance, reduced bullying, and better mental health, making the program more appealing to schools to maintain. The approach evolved into engaging children and parents in identifying problems and co-developing solutions, leading to more locally relevant interventions that have a sense of community ownership. Ensuring cultural sensitivity in diverse populations was addressed by Amsterdam's neighbourhood-based approach and the active involvement of local leaders and residents.

Professor Seidell outlined that his most surprising lesson from the programme was that parents were highly motivated for their children to have good oral health, which acted as a motivator for families to consume an improved diet.

The event then moved on to a panel discussion and Q&A session involving the two speakers, Dennis Overton OBE, founding Chair of the Scottish Food Commission Board, and Nikita Sinclair, Head of Programme for the Children’s Health and Food Programme at Impact on Urban Health.

Overton outlined the extent of Scotland's commitment to halving childhood obesity by 2030 through a range of actions under the Good Food Nation Bill, including free school meals and grants for pregnant women and families.

Sinclair discussed how Impact on Urban Health in Lambeth and Southwark also focused on food environments and health equity, highlighting the importance of influencing national and international factors alongside local interventions. She also spoke to the role working directly with the community plays in securing positive outcomes that respond to people’s needs.