National Child Measurement Programme: Update - corrected software now available Today (28 October 2010)

The NHS Information Centre released corrected software relating to the Parental Feedback Tool of the National Child Measurement Programme.

Following extensive testing we can confirm all letters are now being generated correctly. The amended software is available for immediate use by Primary Care Trusts.

The NHS Information Centre (The NHS IC) today (9 October 2010) apologises to those parents sent letters containing inaccurate information about their child's weight, as a result of a software error.

The inaccurate letters were sent to a small subset of parents of Reception Year and Year 6 pupils whose height and weight were measured during September 2010 as part of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP).

The NCMP measures around one million children a year. The result letters of up to a maximum of 2,500 children could have been affected by the software fault. However, the actual number is likely to be considerably lower than this, as not all of the results letters will have been sent out so soon after measurement took place.

While the inaccurate letters included correct information about children's height and weight and Body Mass Index (BMI), they assigned children to the wrong BMI category. As a result, some children who fall within two BMI centile ranges were categorised as:

• ‘overweight' when they were ‘healthy weight', or
• ‘very overweight' when they were ‘overweight'.

Chief executive Tim Straughan said: “Information about their child's weight is a sensitive and important matter for parents and we would like to apologise for any unnecessary concern this error may have caused.

“We alerted NHS staff responsible for carrying out the measurement programme locally as soon as the problem came to light and are working with them to ensure that families affected by these letters are contacted personally. We are fixing the software fault as quickly as possible.”

The fault potentially affects the letters to parents of children who fall into two specific BMI centile ranges, which are:

• The 85th to 91st BMI centile – children have been incorrectly classified as ‘overweight' when they are in the ‘healthy weight' category, and
• The 95th to 98th BMI centile – children have been incorrectly classified ‘very overweight' when are in the ‘overweight' category.

Local NCMP administrators within primary care trusts are being asked to inform parents affected by the error of their child's correct results as soon as possible.

ENDS

Notes to editors.

1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
2. Established in 2005, the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) weighs and measures children in Reception (typically aged four and five years old) and Year 6 (aged ten and 11 years). The findings are used to inform local planning and delivery of services for children and gather population-level surveillance data to allow analysis of trends in weight. The programme also seeks to engage with parents about the importance of healthy weight in children, since their children's results are shared with them
3. The NCMP is part of the government's Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: a Cross-Government Strategy for England, The Government's strategy is implemented by the Cross-Government Obesity Unit, with the Department of Health (DH) responsible for overall policy on obesity and jointly responsible with the Department of Education (DFE) for policy on child obesity. Central collation and analysis of the NCMP data has been coordinated by The NHS Information Centre since 2006/07. Data are supplied locally by primary care trusts with the support and cooperation of schools.
4. For further information, call Sarah Dahlgren or Kristina Fox on 0845 257 6990 or 07554 166554