England is facing an obesity epidemic. According to research, by the time children enter primary school, more than 1 in 5 are already overweight or obese, and by the time they leave school, that figure increases to more than 1 in 3. In 2014, 58 percent of women and 65 percent of men were overweight or obese.

Innovation Unit was commissioned by Public Health England to conduct qualitative research that is user-centred and grounded in the real experience of service users. The aim was to determine what works in tier 2 and tier 3 weight management services for children, families and adults, from the perspective of service users, service providers and commissioners.

Journey

We began with a stakeholder workshop and interviews that aimed to understand better what currently works well from their perspective. We then engaged 29 service users through co-design workshops and ethnographic research. 

Ethnographic interviews and co-design workshops:

We conducted 11 ethnographic interviews with 15 service users of tier 2 and tier 3 weight management services. These were half-day interviews that took place in people’s homes and aimed to understand the broader factors in their life that may create enablers or barriers to successful engagement with weight management services. 

The interviews focused not only on people’s journey through weight management services but also on the more complex issues in their lives. 

We also engaged service users through the co-design workshops to generate ideas for how we can improve services based on their own service experiences.

Synthesis and analysis:

We focused on synthesising the data from our fieldwork in partnership with commissioners and providers. The activities included storytelling and designing ideal user journeys drawing on the opportunities from the storytelling.