A policy is a key social factor that keeps the social system stable and functioning. They are developed by researching problems in society and identifying ways to solve them using academic disciplines. Fabians (1884) states that government is chosen to create and enforce policies because they are believed to handle the situation better than a free market. For example, creating a childhood obesity policy. This was brought to parliament due to the increasing number of childhood obesity cases. This is demonstrated by the scale of inequality; the height and weight of children in reception and the last year of primary school are recorded. Statistics show that a fifth of children are overweight or obese when they start school. This figure also increases to around a third when children start secondary school. It has also been suggested that there is a link between childhood obesity and childhood deprivation. Another problem with childhood obesity is that it costs too much. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In fact, obesity costs the NHS £5.1 billion every year. Furthermore, obesity is a key risk factor for type 2 diabetes, which costs the NHS £8.8 billion a year (9% of the NHS budget). Despite this, the UK spends a much smaller amount on a range of programs that prevent obesity (£638m). This policy should also be enforced due to the excess calorie intake associated with the lack of exercise children receive in today's society. In 2008, 28% of boys and 19% of girls met government physical activity guidelines. However, in 2012, 21% of boys and only 16% of girls achieved the desired results. Among both boys and girls the percentage dropped in 4 years. Another problematic aspect of childhood obesity is that children eat and drink excessive amounts of sugar as recommended. The SACN suggests that sugar intake should only reach a maximum of 5%, but it is reaching three times this amount. This policy aims to solve these problems in various ways; such as restrictions on promotions, advertising, sugar tax on soft drinks and sugar reformulation. Public Health England suggests that the promotion of unhealthy food and drink should be reduced and if not balanced with healthier products. With the further intention of addressing products with high salt and fat content. They planned to do this by introducing mandatory checks that will reduce such promotions within retail environments as "one get one free". This will therefore reduce sugar intake in families. The findings of this are set out in the House of Commons response to the report on childhood obesity. They suggest that although the government said it would enforce these mandatory controls, it did not comply with them and was not regulated. Therefore, they suggest that there should be continuous monitoring of these promotions. Therefore, retailers did not change their behavior with their harmful promotions, but further government scrutiny suggests that customer behavior did. This creates customer demand for healthier promoted products. For this reason, this is an ineffective component of the policy. One contradiction is that some supermarkets are changing their store layouts to adapt to this situation and promote healthier products and diets..