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Healthy Schools West Midlands 
Partnership holds the key to boosting the success of the government’s Healthy Schools Programme in the West Midlands. The region is one of the most varied in the UK, takes in rural Worcestershire and Herefordshire as well as the urban conurbations of Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry and the Black Country. Emma Balchin, Regional Healthy Schools Co-ordinator, explains: “Each local authority will have separate priorities that will inform our planning process”.
In March 2007, the Government Office for the West Midlands, Department of Health, the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and the Care Services Improvement Partnership held a conference at the NEC in Birmingham. The aim was to share best practice in integrated services and develop an understanding of how working together can improve outcomes for children and young people across the region.
The conference heard that success can best be achieved by initiatives such as Healthy Schools, Extended Schools, Sure Start Children’s Centres and targeted youth support working in tandem. Speaking about the strategy, Roger Crouch, Director for Children and Learners Government Office for the West Midlands, said: “This conference reinforces that all public agencies working with children and young people now have at their core the five Every Child Matters outcomes, which are: be healthy; stay safe; enjoy and achieve; make a positive contribution; and achieve economic well-being.
“These outcomes reinforce one another, and delivery of these items is dependent on partnership working. A child who is healthy, safe, and supported is more likely to learn and thrive. Educational achievement is key to success in later life, allows young people to make informed choices about healthy living and is associated with better health in adulthood”.
So what progress has the West Midlands made in meeting the government’s target of 70 per cent of schools achieving the Healthy School Status by 2009? Almost 80 per cent of Birmingham schools are engaged in the programme at the moment and 40 per cent now have Healthy School Status. Sixty per cent of Wolverhampton schools are on track to achieve the kitemark by December 2007. Emma Balchin is optimistic: “Across the region we expect 55 per cent of schools to reach the target by the end of the year. The majority of local authorities are on track to deliver”.
Of course, the programme is not just about physical health; it is also about good health and happiness inside and out. It isn’t just about pupils either; a healthy school involves the whole community — from parents to governors to school staff — in improving their health and happiness and getting the most out of life.
Researching young people’s health issues is a way of reducing health inequalities, and the West Midlands is exploring the impact of diet, smoking, exercise and campaigns such as road safety.
The means by which children journey to and from school reveal big local differences. While car use was still an issue in more rural parts of the West Midlands, conurbations such as Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton showed large numbers of primary-age children walking to school. Where parents use cars, Balchin recommends that schools involve the local business community, which might be able to direct parents towards car-parking areas where they could drop children off within a short walking distance of school. The aim is to reduce congestion around the school gate and to increase walking. Balchin says: “Local authority road-safety units employ school travel-plan advisers to work with children and parents. We encourage travel plans and walk-to-school weeks”.
Priorities are set at a local level, and in Wolverhampton the local authority commissioned an online survey of health-related behaviour. The survey conducted by the school health education unit of Exeter University sampled the opinions of Year 6 children in primary school and Years 8 and 10 in secondary. The children were asked questions such as:
- How well they felt
- What their worries were
- Whether they had experienced bullying
- Their awareness of the impact of sexual health, drugs, alcohol and smoking campaigns
- How physically active they were.
The issues highlighted are being used to inform policy, as Emma Balchin explains: “One of the priorities identified by Wolverhampton children was ‘what constitutes a portion of fruit and veg?’ And how do they calculate their five portions a day? We found, for example that children were not aware that a fruit smoothie drink, for example, counted as one portion or that a punnet of strawberries was only a single portion”. Cue lessons on nutrition.
The survey revealed that bullying was not as widespread as was feared but that sexual-health education could do better. While primary schools gave a lead in teaching children about the impact of puberty on body changes and emotional development, this wasn’t followed through at secondary level. Only a quarter of children had heard of the young people’s sexual health service, and there was a high rate of teenage pregnancies among girls leaving secondary school. Balchin says: “We are now focussing our efforts on school leavers. And have introduced an awareness campaign about how to reduce the risk of Chlamydia, a sexual disease which is affecting large numbers of young people”.
Of course, the effectiveness of progress towards Healthy School Status is linked closely with budgets, which are held at a local level. But the extra value will be gained by the different departments within local authorities pooling their budgets and working with the support and co-ordination of Government Office West Midlands.
Sandwell Healthy Schools
Ready, Steady . . . Grow programme
Ready, Steady . . . Grow is a fantastic programme designed to encourage children to discover where their food comes from, eat more healthily and to get children inspired by gardening.
The programme is aimed at Year 4 pupils, with some class-based activities and a half-day at the beautiful Salop Drive Market Gardens, based in the heart of Oldbury.
The children learn about the balance of good health and understand a little about plants before visiting Salop Drive. Whilst at Salop Drive the children have a very practical session designed by experts in each of the fields of:
- Horticulture: children learn to garden so they can grow their own food
- Healthy eating: children harvest and taste very fresh organic produce
- Physical activity: children have fun on a treasure hunt to find their five-a-day.
Back at school, the children learn what plants need to grow and bear fruit and how this relates to their own bodies’ requirements to grow fit and strong. The programme fits into the curriculum and is good evidence for National Healthy School Status, the Sustainable Schools Charter Award and Ofsted. The trip also covers schools for the Year of Food and Farming.
A number of Sandwell schools have already participated in the programme, with positive feedback.
All costs for the programme (including transport costs) will be covered — conditions do apply.
Contact details:
Sandwell Food Team, Nicola Webster, Food Development Worker for Children. ASRA, Fenton Street, Smethwick B66 1HR.Telephone: 0121 612 2971; Mobile: 07971 323107; Email: nicola.webster@nhs.net.
Some useful websites
National Healthy Schools Programme
www.healthyschools.gov.uk
Curriculum issues including drugs and sex education
www.teachernet.gov.uk
Information on food in schools
www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk, and www.foodinschools.org
Curriculum-based education around healthy eating
www.foodafactoflife.org.uk
Local information around healthy eating
www.tasteforhealth.com, and www.northwestdentalhealth.nhs.uk
Information about physical activities in Liverpool schools and in the community
http://liverpool.sportspartnership.net, and www.activecities.org
National Healthy Schools Programme:
Regional Co-ordinator
Emma Balchin
Email emma.balchin@gowm.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone 07786 694145
Local Co-ordinators
Birmingham (West Midlands)
Name Andrew Cooper
Email andrew.cooper@birmingham.gov.uk
Telephone 0121 303 8200
Coventry (West Midlands)
Name Heather White
Email heather.white@coventry.gov.uk
Telephone 02476 527428
Dudley (West Midlands)
Name Julie Maguire
Email Julie.Maguire@dudley.gov.uk
Telephone 01384 366498
Herefordshire (West Midlands)
Name Tess Boyes
Email tboyes@herefordshire.gov.uk
Telephone 01432 260841
Sandwell (West Midlands)
Name Louise Sharrod
Email Louise_Sharrod@sandwell.gov.uk
Telephone 0121 524 2618
Shropshire (West Midlands)
Name Frances Phelps
Email frances.phelps@shropshire-cc.gov.uk
Telephone 01743 254548
Solihull (West Midlands)
Name Wendy Jeffreys
Email wendy.jeffreys@solihull-ct.nhs.uk
Telephone 0121 712 8377
Staffordshire (West Midlands)
Name Jan Mellor
Email jan.mellor@staffordshire.gov.uk
Telephone 01785 356421
Stoke-on-Trent (West Midlands)
Emailmichaela.owen@swann.stoke.gov.uk
Telford and Wrekin (West Midlands)
Name Sally Tyas
Email Sally.Tyas@telford.gov.uk
Telephone 01952 388580
Walsall (West Midlands)
Name Janet Catto
Email janet.catto@we.serco.com
Warwickshire (West Midlands)
Name Mindy Chillery
Email mindychillery@warwickshire.gov.uk
Telephone 01926 742006
Wolverhampton (West Midlands)
Name Emma Balchin
Email emma.balchin@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Telephone 01902 555931
Worcestershire (West Midlands)
Name Angela Kirton
Email akirton@worcestershire.gov.uk
Telephone 01905 728905 |
