“JOINED-UP” WORKING IN THE HIGHLANDS

"JOINED-UP" WORKING IN THE HIGHLANDS

Fiona Clarke SRD
Health Promotion Officer, Highland Health Board,
fiona.clarke@hhb.scot.nhs.uk

New Community Schools (N.C.S.) in Scotland were launched in November 1999 as one of the Scottish Executive’s strategies to promote social inclusion and raise educational achievement.

N.C.S. projects have been established in all of Scotland’s Local Authority areas over the past 2 years, bringing together under one roof a Core Team of professionals from Social Work, Health, Community Education and other partner services to provide fully integrated support to schools and families. It’s all about finding the ‘joined-up solutions’ to people’s ‘joined-up problems’!

One of the goals for all New Community Schools is to move towards Health Promoting School status.
In Inverness, the N.C.S. project spans 7 schools (1 secondary, 5 primaries and 1 nursery) and a school age (3 – 18 years) population of 1800. The area served is marked by various indicators of social disadvantage – every school in the Associated School Group has markedly higher entitlement to Free School Meals than the Highland average. (One of the Primary Schools has 70% of its children with Free School Meal entitlement.)

Clearly, each school has its own Development Plan for Health Promotion and their own specific needs and priorities. Over the past 2 years syllabuses and resources have been overhauled or replaced, teaching staff have received generic and topic-focussed professional development.

As a Group, the Headteachers of the 7 schools agreed to establish individual Schools Nutrition Action Groups to further progress their health promotion agendas.

This initiative was then progressed by the Integration Manager of the N.C.S. project and one of the local Health Board’s Health Promotion staff. Together they planned a one-day workshop to be facilitated by Joe Harvey.

One Thursday in mid-September in Highland sunshine, Joe ably facilitated a full cross-section of all the involved parties. Effectively, each of the schools brought their embryonic SNAG to the feast! A member of Senior Management, an enthusiastic teacher, a parent representative and two pupil representatives. In addition, all the local cooks were present, alongside catering management and the Local Authority’s Contracting staff. Together with School Nurses and Health Promotion staff, everybody who needed to be present was present!

An excellent day was had by all. Each school SNAG is now taking forward their own specific ‘action plan’. Lots of new ideas were identified by young people and the adults. Lots of fresh solutions were found to stale problems. The Health Board has committed itself to fund a number of ‘one-off’ SNAG initiatives in each school enabling changes and pilot schemes to be progressed.

Grateful thanks are due to Joe and to the Health Board for such a successful example of ‘joined-up’ working!

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!

INITIAL SNAG WORKSHOP – THURSDAY 13th SEPTEMBER

"School 1’s" first SNAG meeting – Thursday 20th September

ACTION/DISCUSSION LIST:

· Pupil survey re. canteen and tuck shop;
· Menu boards outside canteen;
· Pictorial menus;
· "Set Menus" for "Free School Meal" amount e.g. any drink, any sandwich and any sweet (or a piece of fruit) for £1.40;
· Microwaves for baked potatoes;
· Prepared packed lunches to be more than just sandwiches;
· More wholemeal bread/rolls with fillings;
· More vegetarian options and more salads;
· Special offers of ‘Healthier’ options;
· Install chill cabinets;
· Have free water available in canteen;
· Extend canteen area.

Share and Enjoy:

The Health Education Trust

HET

School Food Policy

HET Initiatives

“JOINED-UP” WORKING IN THE HIGHLANDS