About the Healthy Weight Coach elearning programme
In July 2020, the government announced an ambitious strategy to tackle obesity. To fulfil the commitments made in this strategy, it was announced that an additional £100 million in 2021/22 will be available to improve the support for adults, children and families to achieve and maintain a healthier weight. This funding has been dedicated to expand the availability of the full range of weight management services across England as well as improving signposting and referrals to weight management services.
The strategy also included a commitment to offer all primary care networks the opportunity for staff to support people to achieve a healthier weight by training to become a healthy weight coach.
A healthy weight coach will engage and support people living with overweight or obesity to help them make positive changes to their health and health behaviours to promote a healthier weight. They will be well-placed to signpost or, where appropriate, refer people to weight management services.
Supporting people to move towards a healthier weight can have important benefits to the health and wellbeing of the individual seeking support, as well as individual primary care practices, primary care networks and the NHS by reducing ill-health related to overweight and obesity.
On completion of the elearning programme, you will have the skills and confidence to have meaningful conversations to support people to move towards a healthier weight.
Course information
The Healthy Weight Coach elearning programme has been developed for colleagues in primary care and primary care networks who already engage and interact with people as part of their role and are interested in supporting people who want to prioritise their weight, health and wellbeing.
The healthy weight coach is a new, voluntary role with an additional and, in some cases, overlapping, set of competencies and responsibilities to a person’s existing substantive role.
The training will help individuals to engage and support people living with overweight and obesity to make positive changes to their health and weight-related behaviours.
The healthy weight coach elearning programme is made up of the following 8 sessions.
You must complete all 8 sessions to become a healthy weight coach:
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1. The Role of a Healthy Weight Coach
1. The Role of a Healthy Weight Coach
This session will describe the role and scope of the healthy weight coach, including how this role complements existing services, and the need to signpost or refer people to support based on their needs.
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2. The Complexity of weight gain, obesity and weight management
2. The Complexity of weight gain, obesity and weight management
This session will provide an introduction to obesity. The concept of weight gain and obesity as a complex, multifaceted health condition arising from interactions between biological, behavioural, psychosocial, genetic and environmental factors will be introduced.
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3. Measuring and assessing a person’s weight
3. Measuring and assessing a person’s weight
This session will provide an overview of body mass index (BMI), how to calculate BMI, and what tools are available to support healthy weight coaches to assess weight status, including additional ways to assess health. This session will also explore real life examples of barriers and enablers to change.
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4. The outcomes associated with overweight, obesity and weight management
4. The outcomes associated with overweight, obesity and weight management
This session explains the health benefits of preventing or slowing down weight gain, in addition to the negative health and social impacts for people living with overweight or obesity.
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5. Healthy eating, drinking and physical activity
5. Healthy eating, drinking and physical activity
This session will provide an overview of current government healthy eating and physical activity recommendations for the general population, and factors that influence diet and physical activity.
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6. Avoiding weight stigma and challenging biases
6. Avoiding weight stigma and challenging biases
This session explains the importance of identifying how to avoid weight stigma, and how a person who has experienced weight stigma in a healthcare setting, may have negatively affected their mental and physical wellbeing.
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7. Supporting behaviour change
7. Supporting behaviour change
In this session you will find brief information about some of the behaviour change models and techniques that can be used to support people living with overweight or obesity, and includes ‘health coaching’ principles, person-centred approaches as well as motivational interviewing techniques and positive psychology.
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8. How to communicate effectively
8. How to communicate effectively
In this session you will focus on how to have a conversation about weight with a person sensitively and confidently using a range of communication skills and language appropriate to a person’s needs. This session also contains some example conversations and a healthy weight coach checklist which includes what a healthy weight coach should ensure they know to deliver the role effectively and remember when having conversations with people living with overweight or obesity.
More information
A reference guide on the healthy weight coach elearning programme has been developed for primary care networks and practices interested in training staff, and individuals interested in undertaking training, to become a healthy weight coach. The healthy weight coach reference guide can be found here: FutureNHS link
Meet the team
Dr Stuart Flint
Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Leeds
Professor Louisa Ells
Professor of Obesity, Leeds Beckett University
Professor Jason Halford
Professor of Biological Psychology & Health Behaviours, University of Leeds
Dr Beverley O’Hara
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Leeds
Lisa Mabbs
Obesity and Healthy Weight Team, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
Penny Blair
Obesity and Healthy Weight Team, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
Dr Alison Feeley
Obesity and Healthy Weight Team, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
Lucy Porter
Behavioural Insights Adviser, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
Emma Nye
Programme Manager, HEE elearning for Healthcare
Rob Pollard
Project Manager, HEE elearning for Healthcare
Alice Denham
Lead Learning Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
Angelina Montinaro
Lead Learning Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
Sonali Gupta
Learning Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
Runam Prasad
Learning Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
Louise Garrahan
Communications and Stakeholder Officer, HEE elearning for healthcare
Naomi Knight
Graphic Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
Scott Tyrrell
Animator / Graphic Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
Acknowledgements:
Healthy weight coach project steering group members (January – September 2021):
- Alison Feeley, Public Health England
- Lisa Mabbs, Public Health England
- Penny Blair, Public Health England
- Lucy Porter, Public Health England
- Monica Davidson, Public Health England
- Stuart Flint, University of Leeds
- Jason Halford, University of Leeds
- Beverley O’Hara, University of Leeds
- Louisa Ells, Leeds Beckett University
- Rebecca Lawrence, Department of Health and Social Care
- Sarah Bullock, Department of Health and Social Care
- Jim Phillips, NHS England & Improvement
- Katherine Taylor, NHS England & Improvement
- Janet Somers, NHS England & Improvement
- Emma Rawson, NHS England & Improvement
- Emma Nye, Health Education England
- Rob Pollard, Health Education England
- Janet Flint, Health Education England
- Heidi Breed, Health Education England
- Antonio De Gregorio, Health Education England
Colleagues involved in the review of the healthy weight coach training programme (in addition to the healthy weight coach project steering group):
- Rachel White, Public Health England
- Jamie Blackshaw, Public Health England
- Caroline Hancock, Public Health England
- Lisa Thompson, Public Health England
- Casey Bodman, Public Health England
- Caitlin Thomas, Public Health England
- Jess Gwynn, Public Health England
- Vicky Targett, Public Health England
- Vicki Pyne, Public Health England
- Alicia Parr, Public Health England
- Michelle Ball, Public Health England
- Alison Farrar, Public Health Workforce Lead HEE North West
- Ken Clare, Obesity UK
- Sarah Le Brocq, Obesity Advocate and Patient Advocate
- Michelle Turner, Shropshire Community Trust
- Abi Lowe-Werrell, Shropshire Community Trust
- Lindsey Pashley, Selby Town Primary Care Network
- Anna Baird, Blackthorn Health Centre
- Emma Seward-Adams, Watergate Primary Care Network
- Jenny Hartnoll, Frome Medical Centre
- Jo Fordham, Frome Medical Centre
How to access
In order to access the Healthy Weight Coach programme, you will need an e-LfH account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the Healthy Weight Coach programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with e-LfH, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
NHS healthcare staff in England
The Healthy Weight Coach programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this e-Learning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access e-LfH Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Healthy Weight Coach programme, please contact e-LfH directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact e-LfH directly to express interest.
How to gain CPD points
This programme forms part of the Personalised Care Institute’s library of personalised care training for all healthcare professions. If you would like to obtain a certificate and CPD points for your ongoing CPD records, and learn a lot more about personalised care, then please visit the Personalised Care Institute website to register and access.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.