Thursday 19 March 2009
The Sex Education Forum (SEF), the national
authority on Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), based at NCB,
is hosting an event in Birmingham on Friday 20 March, designed to
explain how schools and colleges can set up their own on-site
sexual health services.
The event marks the start of a series of regional events on
sexual health services in schools. Over 100 delegates from across
the West and East Midlands will hear from a range of speakers how
they too can set up high quality young people-friendly
services.
Schools in Worcestershire, Stoke and Leicestershire have been
praised nationally for the on-site sexual health services they
provide to their students. Confidential sexual health
services on a school/college site make it easier for young people
to get help with problems early, and SEF wants to ensure that the
excellent practice seen in some areas becomes standard across the
country.
Lucy Emmerson, Acting Coordinator of the SEF, said: "It is
really encouraging to see that in some areas of the country many
schools are providing confidential sexual health services on site.
There is a wealth of practical information that other schools can
use to set up similar services to meet the needs of their students.
Tomorrow's event is a great chance for professionals to network and
learn from each other.
Lucy continued: On-site sexual health services enable Health
Professionals to build on what young people learn in SRE by giving
them crucial one-to-one advice about their health and well-being as
well as access to contraception, pregnancy and STI testing if
needed.'"
The Rt HON Beverley Hughes MP, Minister for Children and Young
People, said: 'I fully support the many secondary schools, which
are seeing the value of providing their students with on-site
health advice and services. They can help tackle public concerns
such as teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections,
smoking, binge drinking and obesity, and also improve attendance
and attainment by quickly addressing concerns that may have a
negative impact on learning.'
Debra Newton, Health Promotion Specialist from Worcestershire
Primary Care Trust who is speaking at the event said: "Our TIME 4U
service (a young person centred health service) has been
established for 15 years and over the last 5 years we have
increased our number of school based drop-ins. We now see many more
young people and often before there is a crisis in their lives.
Schools are keen for us to train teachers so that they can provide
better sex and relationship education and sign posting to services.
This is a "win win" combination for everyone!"
In Leicestershire sexual health clinics run in several secondary
schools. Sue O'Connor, school nurse said: "Our school based clinic
is called 'Strictly Confidential' and is a genuine partnership
between ourselves, schools, youth services, the students and a
local GP. We're providing a personalised service, which is
developed in conjunction with students to ensure we are meeting
their needs".
A resource pack that offers advice on how to set up on-site
school services will be launched at the Birmingham event. The pack
gives tips on how to design services to be open at times that suit
young people and are convenient for them. The pack also includes a
section about what young people want to learn about services as
part of SRE. Schools who would like a copy of the resource pack
should contact sexedforum@ncb.org.uk
-ENDS-
Notes for Editors:
• The Sex Education Forum is the national authority on sex
and relationships education (SRE). We believe that good quality SRE
is an entitlement for all children and young people and we are
working with its 50 member organisations - including religious,
children's, parents and governor, health and education
organisations - to achieve this. For further information visit www.ncb.org.uk/sef
• NCB promotes the voices, interests and well-being of all
children and young people across every aspect of their lives.
As a membership and infrastructure support agency for the
children's sector in England and Northern Ireland, NCB provides
essential information on policy, research and best practice for our
members and the members of our wide range of partnership bodies,
which operate under our charitable status and are based in our
London headquarters. For further information visit http://www.ncb.org.uk/
For further information on this release contact:
Anna Tombs, Clare Quarrell, Sarah Thorne NCB Media Office
Tel: 020 7843 6045/6044/6359/07721
097033
Email: media@ncb.org.uk