As the NHS 10-Year Plan positions GLP-1 medications as a transformative tool in tackling obesity, a key challenge remains: ensuring that initial weight loss leads to sustained health improvements for individuals and long-term benefits for the health system.
At Maximus, our experience working across 13 local authorities shows that sustainable outcomes rely on more than medication alone. Behavioural change is the foundation of long-term success, and through our programmes, we combine evidence-based behavioural science and flexible, person-centred delivery to improve individual outcomes and reduce long-term pressure on the NHS.
Designing effective behavioural pathways
Our 12-week programme, delivered in line with NICE guidelines, applies the COM-B behavioural framework to address three key components that influence behaviour: Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation. Rather than simply advising what to eat or how to move, we focus on the mindset, habits, and triggers behind lifestyle behaviours.
By addressing the social, environmental, and psychological factors that shape health behaviours, we help individuals understand and overcome the barriers influencing their choices. This empowers them to adopt sustainable habits that improve wellbeing. Our behavioural approach goes beyond surface-level advice, delivering better outcomes, reducing demand on health services, and tackling long-standing health inequalities.
Through a co-designed, inclusive approach with local communities, we’ve built a wide range of programmes that support individuals of all ages, with tailored options for men, teens (13–17), families, and individuals with learning disabilities, visual impairments, and physical disabilities.
Delivering integrated support in Buckinghamshire
This pathway is yielding measurable results. In Buckinghamshire, where 61% of adults are obese or overweight, our Be Healthy Bucks service is demonstrating how coordinated, scalable behavioural support can drive results.
Recognising that smoking, alcohol use and weight management rarely exist in isolation, we provide integrated support through a single access point.
Between April 2024 and September 2025, more than 1,300 adults enrolled in our 12-week weight management programme. With a 51% completion rate – the programme is achieving strong engagement.
Among those who completed the programme, 71% achieved clinically significant weight loss of at least 3%. More notably, 50% of completers went on to achieve 5% weight loss, demonstrating sustained commitment and continued success in reaching the threshold for meaningful reductions in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk.
Building effective GLP-1 pathways
GLP-1 medications represent a significant advancement in obesity treatment, yet their long-term effectiveness depends on the behavioural infrastructure that supports them. To maximise impact, physical and behavioural interventions must be integrated from the outset, ensuring individuals receive coordinated support that addresses both the medication’s effects and the lifestyle changes needed to sustain them.
However, integration alone isn’t enough. Given the anticipated and sustained demand for GLP-1s, services must be scalable, evidence-based, and capable of meeting the needs of diverse populations. Delivery models must be flexible enough to adapt to individual circumstances while maintaining consistency in quality and outcomes.
To assess true value, measurement frameworks must evolve beyond short-term indicators such as completion rates and initial weight loss. Long-term metrics – including sustained behaviour change, reduced service demand, and progress in addressing health inequalities are essential to understanding whether interventions deliver lasting benefit.
Building the foundations for long-term change
Medication provides the catalyst for change, but it’s behavioural support that can truly sustain it.
Our role is to build the behavioural foundations that help people maintain change and transform their lives for the long term. The pathways we design today will shape obesity outcomes for years to come – and must be built with integration, scalability, and sustainability at their core.
