Enhancing weight management support in the UK

Yesterday, the government and Lilly announced a health innovation programme of up to £85m, delivered by Innovate UK, to demonstrate new weight management pathways in the community. The UK government will contribute up to £50m in new UK-wide investment through the Obesity Healthcare Goals programme, managed by Innovate UK, with up to £35m of grant funding coming from Lilly.

With obesity costing the UK health service more than £11bn each year, impacting the lives of millions, action to tackle the condition is urgently needed. Innovative, holistic approaches to weight management must be integrated into the existing health system in ways that avoid adding pressure to already stretched services.

Innovating together

Through the programme, it is hoped that tens of thousands of people living with obesity could be offered new types of holistic support to improve their health and help them manage their weight. These new approaches will test better, innovative ways to make it easier for people to get the care and services they need.

Bids will be invited from healthcare stakeholders across the NHS, working in partnership with technology providers, to pilot innovative care models for people living with obesity, outside of existing specialist weight management services.

People living with obesity will be able to get access to holistic weight management support through new routes like digital tools models, local community-based access and pharmacies.

This announcement builds on the recent investment into 23 projects from the Weight Management Pathway Design Accelerator. Led by Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and health boards across the UK, these focused three-month projects are exploring new ways to design more personalised and joined-up weight management support, delivered in local communities where it’s easier for people to access.

Plan for change

Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said:

New ways of accessing support to tackle obesity, such as through pharmacies or with help from digital tools, could be transformational for people’s quality of life, and for society – allowing individuals to more easily manage their weight and freeing them from ill-health that holds them back in daily life – while reducing the strain on our NHS.

“This programme also underlines life sciences’ critical value to our Plan for Change and our modern Industrial Strategy. By working hand-in-hand with one of the world’s largest life sciences companies, we are driving investment into the UK and tackling one of the greatest health challenges of our era.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said:

Obesity is now one of the leading causes of ill health, costing the NHS billions. Yet, we now have the science, technology and knowledge to help tackle the obesity epidemic, if we seize this opportunity.

As we shift our focus from treatment to prevention with our 10 Year Health Plan we are also determined to bring revolutionary modern care to everyone that needs it, not just those who can afford to pay.

This collaboration will help patients living with obesity in a matter of months – through testing better access to weight loss services and treatments.

In the long-term it will inform how we can better tackle one of the biggest modern day health challenges and, through our Plan for Change, create an NHS that is fit for the future.

Collaborating for change

Professor Rachel Batterham, Senior Vice President for International Medical Affairs at Lilly said:

The launch of this programme marks an important milestone in advancing new models of care for obesity. At Lilly, we are deeply committed to addressing the complex health challenge of obesity, and we are pleased to collaborate with the UK government and NHS partners. Together, we aim to build an evidence base that could transform health outcomes for people living with obesity.

Making life better

Dr Stella Peace, Executive Director for Healthy Living and Agriculture Domain at Innovate UK, said:

Developing innovative holistic solutions to obesity is an important step towards driving improvements in public health.

By supporting the development of new care pathways, we’re enabling novel solutions that can be scaled, sustained, and embedded into everyday healthcare. This is part of our commitment to inspire and unlock innovations with the ambition of making life better — for citizens, communities, and the wider economy.

Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP) competition

The competition is split into three strands:

• Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP): Strand 1 – Access and management service: The service must provide a comprehensive patient-centred access service within a multi-disciplinary team.
• Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP): Strand 2 – Care pathway services: Services must provide new pathways and models of care for the patient once they have been referred for an intervention.
• Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP): Strand 3 – Combined access and management service and care pathway services: Requiring the merging of both the access and management service, and new care pathway services strands mentioned above.

Eligible public sector organisations can only lead on up to two applications across all strands of the competition.