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Healthy Schools South-East 
Covering some of the most affluent areas of Britain such as Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hampshire, the South East region is, nevertheless, committed to children’s health. Regional Healthy Schools Co-ordinator Rachel Pottinger explains: “The South East is a very diverse region where there are high levels of affluence right next door to pockets of deprivation”. Wealth and poverty co-exist, particularly in the coastal conurbations of Portsmouth, Southampton and Brighton and Hove.
The region has many strengths, namely successful multi-agency working and effective partnerships. Pottinger explains that the main priority for the 19 local authorities that make up the region is sharing best practice. She says: “One of the things we were doing in 2007 was really building the network of local programme co-ordinators. My role is providing a shared direction”.
The participation rate is high. Eighty-nine per cent of South East schools are engaged in the healthy-school process, and fifty-two per cent have already reached Healthy School Status (HSS). The region is on track to meet the government’s 2009 target.
There is a consensus on the priorities shaping the South East Healthy Schools Programme. Healthy eating has a high profile thanks to organisations like the Food Standards Agency, the School Food Trust and the Soil Association. But, says Pottinger, schools going for HSS need to look at the bigger picture: “Obesity has been grabbing all the headlines, particularly as a result of the national targets for halting the rise in childhood obesity for the under 11s by 2010. As a consequence, some schools forget that our remit is much broader than healthy eating”. Physical activity and emotional health play an equally important role.
Pottinger sees the new local partnerships, Quality Assurance Groups (QAGs) as the vehicle for driving the Healthy Schools Agenda forward. She says: “Local authorities routinely have eight partners sitting on the QAG board; others have as many as twenty”. Among the bodies collaborating on setting a strategy for local schools are school sports partnerships, schools catering, children and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) school travel plan managers and healthy eating bodies.
Pottinger is supporting the QAGs through training. She says: “Most local authorities programmes are keen to develop the effectiveness of their QAG. And we’re looking at training and clarifying the process in order to support schools engaged in the self-validation process”.
Since Healthy Schools now relies on self-validation the regional co-ordinator’s role is to encourage as many schools as possible to work towards this standard and to complete the necessary paperwork. Pottinger says: “Local authority co-ordinators need to keep those school quality assurance submissions coming in. A lot of local authorities have set up systems to track the progress of schools engaged in the healthy-school process towards self-validation”.
But there remains roughly 10 per cent of schools which are yet to get involved in the scheme. Pottinger is planning to target what she calls “hard to reach schools” in order to find out why they are not participating. She says: “Every local authority has a group of schools that are difficult to engage with. We need to start finding out what their reasons are and unpicking them. It could be that some schools are already run on healthy lines but just don’t recognise they are doing it or that others read the literature and say ‘that’s not for me’. We need to know why some schools don’t feel the need to engage in becoming a healthy school and work out a strategy for working with them”.
Over the past year the region has made good progress. Pottinger points to the Red Amber Green (RAG) reports that alert her to intervene when authorities are not putting policies into practice. She says: “In April (2007) we had four programmes identified on the RAG as red. In July there were no reds at all”.
Mainly, this is down to the success of partnership working. “Multi-agency working is one of the strengths of the South East. We are working closely with the Sustainable Schools Project, local authority obesity teams, strategic health authorities and extended services in schools. Quality Assurance Groups (QAGs) all involve relevant partners working in close collaboration”.
So what are next year’s priorities? It goes back to training for all local authority staff engaged in delivering local healthy-schools programmes. Pottinger says: “We need to provide a lot more continuous professional development for staff engaged in healthy schools at a local level and we need to follow the example of the School Food Trust, which has been very active across the region in providing training for school chefs and the School Sports Partnership, which is making a big difference in terms of physical activity. Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) will also be a big priority”.
National Healthy Schools Programme:
Regional Co-ordinator
Name Rachel Pottinger
Email rachel.pottinger@gose.gsi.gov.uk
Local Co-ordinators
Bracknell Forest (South-East)
Name Gillian Gyenes
Email gillian.gyenes@which.net
Brighton and Hove (South-East)
Name Chris Owen
Email chris.owen@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Telephone 01273 293530
Buckinghamshire (South-East)
Name Mandy Stevenson
Email astevenson@buckscc.gov.uk
Telephone 01296 334994
East Sussex (South-East)
Name Julie Robertson
Email Julie.robertson@eastsussex.gov.uk
Telephone Hampshire (South-East)
Name Janet Gouveia
Email Jan.Gouveia@hants.gov.uk
Telephone 02380 816139
Isle of Wight (South-East)
Name Helen Lewis
Email helen.lewis@iow.gov.uk
Telephone 01983 529790
Kent (South-East)
Name Carol Healy
Email carol.healy@kent.gov.uk
Medway Towns (South-East)
Name Zoe Barnett
Email zoe.barnett@medway.gov.uk
Telephone 01634 331 038
Milton Keynes (South-East)
Name Terry Brown
Email tbinou@yahoo.co.uk
Telephone 01908 233001
Oxfordshire (South-East)
Name Anne Whitehead
Email Anne.Whitehead@Oxfordshire.gov.uk
Telephone 01865 428038
Portsmouth (South-East)
Name David Hart
Email david.hart@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
Reading (South-East)
Name Gill Brookman
Email gill.brookman@reading.gov.uk
Telephone 0118 901 5693
Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (South-East)
Name Cyndy Gray
Email cyndy.gray@rbwm.gov.uk
Telephone 01628 796753
Slough (South-East)
Name Jamie Hassan
Email jamie.hassan@slough.gov.uk
Telephone 01753 476549
Southampton (South-East)
Name Natasha Bye-brooks
Email natasha.bye-brooks@southampton.gov.uk
Telephone 02380515224
Surrey (South-East)
Name Liz Griffiths
Email liz.griffiths@vtplc.com
Telephone 01372 834444
West Berkshire (South-East)
Name Christine Allan
Email derek.allan2005@btinternet.com
West Sussex (South-East)
Name Maggie South
Email maggie.south@wsx-pct.nhs.uk
Telephone 01243 815176
Wokingham (South-East)
Name Rosie Webb
Email rosie.webb@wokingham.gov.uk |
