Meeting documents

To consider a report by the Acting Director of Public Health.

The Board considered a report by the Acting Director of Public Health on what initiative was were being provided by way of "The Whole School Approach" project as part of Prevention at Scale. This aimed to address rising concerns about children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing, through harnessing the positive impact of a wide range of physical activities when integrated in "a whole school approach".

The aims of the initiative were:-

• Improve mental health of children and young people, with reduced referrals to wellbeing support

• Children and young people who have improved awareness of ways to manage stress and achieve calm

• To transform the wellbeing of children and young people through increased engagement of physical activity, including sport and PE, to become keen active adults.

Schools had been invited to bid for funding against these three aims and to demonstrate how their project would deliver by engaging children and young people - and if possible families and communities - in physical activity. Applications were evaluated by a Panel comprising both public health and education representatives and an assessment made to determine if the necessary criteria was met and, on that basis, funding had been allocated as necessary.

Whilst a number of schools had been successful in their bids, others had not, with feedback being given as why this was not the case and how they might be successful in the event of this initiative being staged in future. Successful applications had to clearly demonstrate how schools would meet one or more of the project aims; had robust and credible action plans; could identify milestones; and had clear budgets addressing sustainability. For those successful schools, it was determined that a total of 16,251 pupils would potentially receive direct or indirect benefit from the activities or programmes available.

Schools would use the ‘Health and Wellbeing Wheel’ to monitor the impact on outcomes along with feedback from the Headteacher’s Alliance.

The Board were pleased to learn of this initiative and what it was designed to achieve However they were disappointed that more schools had not taken the opportunity to engage in this and hoped that given greater publicity, particularly in the conurbation, there would be the encouragement for increased interest to be shown. They also considered that efforts should be made to engage with those children who were either home schooled or had been excluded from school to ensure they received the same opportunities and their peers in mainstream schooling.

Officers confirmed that part of the Board’s remit was to identify where inequalities might be found and target these, as had been the case. As part of this initiative, participation on the part of the school was a critical part of how successful it was. Allowing for flexibility in how schools wanted to best address their participation and what they wanted from it was integral to how successful it was and what it could achieve.

The Board were encouraged by what progress was being made; how this was being applied and how schools were seen to be embracing this initiative in ensuring that their school children had access to all the opportunities they might to improve and enhance their emotional health and well being through physical activity.

Noted