NCMP

The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) was established in 2006 and involves measuring the height and weight of reception and year 6 children at state-funded schools, including academies, in England. Statistics on the National Child Measurement Programme show that every year, more than one million children are measured. They also show annual participation rates are consistently high (around 94% of children), with over 99% of eligible schools (approximately 17,000 schools) taking part.

The purpose of the NCMP is to provide:

  • high-quality public health surveillance data to understand and monitor patterns and trends
  • the prevalence of underweight, healthy weight, overweight and obesity in children
  • data on child height at national and local levels

It is critical for the surveillance of child growth and weight, inequalities and child health.

The NCMP and the 10 Year Health Plan for England

The 10 Year Health Plan for England sets out how the government will deal with the obesity crisis, ease pressure on the NHS and help raise the healthiest generation of children ever.

The NCMP helps measure how well policies in the plan are working. It helps local authorities to plan and develop child health policies and targeted interventions to commission services to ensure all children have the opportunity to be healthy.

The NCMP also underpins the Public Health Outcomes Framework indicators on prevalence of overweight (including obesity) in children aged 4 to 5 years and 10 to 11 years and is one of the Local Outcomes Framework metrics on health and wellbeing. You can read more about the available indicators on the Public Health Outcomes Framework collection page.

Prevalence of childhood obesity

NCMP data shows that the prevalence of obesity in children in reception (aged 4 to 5) and year 6 (age 10 to 11) is unacceptably high. The report NCMP: changes in the prevalence of child obesity between 2019 to 2020 and 2021 to 2022 showed that the overall change in prevalence levels has also been relatively small each year, with the exception of the unprecedented rise seen in the 2020 to 2021 NCMP annual report, which showed an increase of around 4.5 percentage points.

The 2024 to 2025 NCMP annual report showed that while the majority of children remain a healthy weight (75.4% in reception, aged 4 to 5 years, and 62.2% in year 6, aged 10 to 11 years), 10.5% of children in reception and 22.2% of year 6 children are living with obesity. Excluding the pandemic peak, this is the highest obesity prevalence seen in reception since measurements began in 2006 to 2007.

The data consistently shows that the number of children living with obesity doubles between reception and year 6 (from around 10% to around 20%). Additionally, year-on-year, the data has shown that children living with obesity in the most deprived 10% of areas in England is more than twice that in the least deprived 10%, and that prevalence varies between different children from different ethnic groups. This gap in obesity prevalence by deprivation continues to widen for both reception and year 6. For those children with severe obesity, the gap rises to more than 4 times for both year groups.

Weight status in primary school

NCMP data is used to analyse and further understand child weight tracking through primary school, as reported in Changes in the body mass index (BMI) category of children between the first and final years of primary school, 2023 to 2024.

Most children in their first year of primary school with a healthy weight retain this healthy BMI category until the last year of primary school. However, more children moved from a healthy weight in reception to a higher BMI category (overweight, living with obesity or severe obesity) in year 6 (almost 18% of children) than the number who moved the other way from a higher BMI category in reception to a healthy weight in year 6 (just over 3% of children).

Children from the most deprived backgrounds and certain ethnic communities are at higher risk of retaining or gaining an unhealthy weight.

Child height data

DHSC publishes data on mean height and prevalence of short stature for children measured in the NCMP contributing to understanding the national trends in child height and growth. This includes:

The average height of 5 year old boys and girls in England had been increasing slightly over the period of NCMP data collection up to 2019 to 2020. There was a relatively large increase in average height in 2020 to 2021, which coincided with the large increase in the prevalence of obesity during the pandemic.

Since 2020 to 2021, average height has decreased among girls and boys and is now similar to the 2018 to 2019 average.

The average height of 11 year olds in England increased slightly over the period of NCMP data collection from academic years ending 2009 to 2020. There was a relatively large increase in average height in 2020 to 2021, which coincided with a large increase in the prevalence of obesity during the pandemic.

Since 2021 to 2022, average height of girls has decreased but remains above pre-pandemic levels. Average height of boys has not decreased and remains above pre-pandemic levels. This is similar to the 2020 to 2021 average.

The prevalence of short stature among children in reception is low. From 1.8% in 2018 to 2019, it decreased to 1.4% during the COVID-19 pandemic but has since increased again, reaching 1.9% in 2024 to 2025.

The prevalence of short stature among children in year 6 is lower than in reception children. In 2018 to 2019, 1.1% of children had short stature. This decreased to 0.7% in 2020 to 2021 and has remained less than 1% since the pandemic and is now 0.8% in 2024 to 2025.

Indicators using NCMP data on average height of children aged 5 and 11 years, and prevalence of short stature among children in reception (age 4 to 5 years) and year 6 (age 10 to 11 years) are available in the ‘Obesity, physical activity and nutrition profile’ for England, regions, local authorities and ICBs.

The importance of mental wellbeing during the NCMP

The wellbeing of children and families participating in the NCMP is a priority. We recognise that child weight and growth can be very sensitive for some children and parents. We have highlighted the importance of maintaining the mental and emotional wellbeing of children and families in all NCMP guidance and delivery resources provided to:

  • the delivery teams that carry out the measurements
  • schools
  • local authorities

NCMP resources developed for children and families are designed to promote healthy lifestyle behaviours and are not focussed on weight.

Measuring children in a sensitive way

School nursing teams and NCMP delivery staff measure children in a sensitive way, in private and away from other children. The weight and height information is shared with the parent or carer in a feedback letter (see section 1.3 below, ‘Deciding whether to provide parents with children’s measurements’ for further details on feedback letters). Where local authorities provide feedback letters, no individual information is shared with the children themselves, the teachers or the school.

It is a parent’s choice if they share the information with their child. If a parent is concerned about their child’s growth, weight, body image or eating patterns, NCMP feedback letters provide national and local information to support parents and advise them on when to seek further support from a school nurse by emailing tsdft.0to19torbay@nhs.net or by contacting their GP.

Classification of overweight and obesity 

For population monitoring purposes, a child’s BMI is classed as overweight or living with obesity where it is on or above the 85th centile or 95th centile, respectively, based on the British 1990 (UK90) growth reference data.  

Population monitoring uses lower BMI category thresholds than used for clinical assessment ((91st and 98th centiles for overweight and obesity). This identifies children in the population in the clinical overweight or obesity BMI categories and those who are at high risk of moving into those categories. It helps planning and delivery of services that intervene early to treat and prevent obesity and support healthy growth for all children. 

For any questions about the delivery of the NCMP in your school, please contact Publichealth@torbay.gov.uk

 

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