Watch It
Information for parents and families

WATCH IT is a city wide service which is designed to help and support children and young people aged 7-14 who struggle with being overweight.

The programme supports overweight children to become a healthy weight, increase the level of physical activity that they carry out and to improve their self esteem.

Each child is assessed, and receives guidance based on achieving a healthy balanced diet, increased physical activity and behaviour modification. The focus is on family change as well as on the individual child. Families commit to attend for 4 months with an option to renew every 4 months so potentially they can benefit from the service for up to a year.

Sessions are delivered after school and on Saturdays to avoid absence from school. Families only need to attend 1.5 hours a week.

Watch It Clinics

Tuesday, 4-7pm
Longley Primary School, Raisen Hall Road, Sheffield, S5 7NA

Wednesday, 4-7pm
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, Training Centre, Beever Hill Road, Sheffield, S13 9QA

Thursday, 4-7pm
Valley Park Primary, Norton Avenue, Sheffield, S14 1SL

Friday, 4-7pm
ZEST, 18 Upperthorpe Road, Sheffield, S6 3NA

Saturday, 9.30am-12.30pm
The Centre In The Park, Norfolk Heritage Park, Guildford Avenue, Sheffield, S2 2PL

Saturday, 2-5pm
Crescent Community Centre, Firshill Crescent, Sheffield, S47BX

The programme is two fold:

Weekly Activity

Young people are encouraged to participate in the weekly Watch It physical activity sessions delivered by Activity Sheffield at the local venue. This involves fun activities for the children to get involved in. The children get awards for attending the sessions. There are treats and rewards for children to celebrate their achievements on the programme, in the past this has included taking the children to basketball games, free football match tickets and having special one off events over Christmas.

Weekly one to one with Health Trainer

Each family gets assigned a Health Trainer who will work with them whilst they are on the programme. Assigning a Health Trainer to a child is great as they can support the child on their journey to losing weight and can motivate and encourage them. The health trainer will educate the family and will work through various topics including:

5 a day, Regular Meals, Portion Sizes, Increase Activity, Motivation to lose Weight, Self Esteem and Balancing Foods.

Referral Criteria

Children, teenagers and parents may self refer or be referred via other channels such as their GP, pediatrician, school nurse or any other professional working with them.

The criteria to join the programme are:

• Parents and young people need to commit to a minimum of 16 weeks to complete the first phase of the programme
• Children/teenagers must have the ability to work through the HELP Programme, so it is inappropriate for those with significant learning/behavioural difficulties
• We do not work with children with Type 1 diabetes
• Centile: 91^st and above
• 7-14 years old (or school Year 2-Year 9)

Referral Forms

Referral form for professionals (664kb Word)

Referral form for Parent/Guardian (665kb Word)

Contact Us

For clinic details or for further information contact:

Service Manager – Nazreen Iqbal
Tel: 0114 270 2040 ext 208

Administrator – Claudia Thompson
Tel: 0114 270 2040 ext 216

Email: sheffieldwatch-it@zestcommunity.co.uk

Watch It is a city wide service commissioned by NHS Sheffield, based at ZEST, which works in partnership with Activity Sheffield.