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It has been 25 years since the Government first provided specific funding for health education in schools, but has this continued investment had much impact? Kath Sanderson, former Senior Manager in Children's Services, Rochdale MBC, assesses health education in schools
In 1986, in response to growing concerns about drug use by young people, the Government provided the first of many years' funding to local authorities to ensure that drug education was developed in all schools. Prior to this, most schools had provided some form of health education ranging from hygiene and dental health to lessons in wider personal, social and health education (PSHE), while a small number of national organizations provided support and resources for teachers.
There was reticence from many schools, both primary and secondary, to this initiative, since they were concerned that providing drug education would lead parents and others to think the school had a drug problem. There was general agreement that drug education should be part of wider PSHE programmes and consequently this fairly high-profile initiative became an incentive to review the wider provision, including sex and relationships education.
Health education messages are not always simple. While there is general agreement to just say no to illicit drugs and tobacco, we need to tread more carefully where parents and other family members smoke. Alcohol often comes across as 'not now, but it is OK to drink sensibly later', and healthy eating and exercise messages are not clear as we can eat chocolate occasionally and we do not have to exercise every day.
Not only was there much debate about what to teach, but also how to teach it. There was some success in moving away from the 'tell them and they won't do it' and the 'fear' approaches and also from one-off talks. We also moved away from just giving children the appropriate knowledge and information in the naive belief that they would then make the healthy decisions.
Rosenstock1 and others suggested that life skills, decision-making skills and assertiveness are key...