ADD2305 Healthy Schools London Website Re-skin

The Mayor’s Healthy Schools London programme, part of the delivery plan for the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy (October 2018), represents a London-wide initiative to support the wellbeing and mental health of all school aged children in London. Originally launched in April 2013, the programme has since gained the support of 29 boroughs, which have invested staff and money into the borough-level delivery of the programme. Additionally, more than three-quarters of London schools have engaged with it, 2,053 London schools are now signed up to take part with 1,168 schools that have achieved a Bronze Award, 592 with Silver and 229 with a Gold Award. The Healthy Schools London programme works with all 2,647 London schools representing a school population of approximately 1.3 million children and young people.

The Healthy Schools London website was first launched in April 2013 and is one of the Healthy Schools London’s primary vehicles for engaging with schools and London Boroughs. The website was set up with funding from the London Health Improvement Board (LHIB). The website cost of £50k was paid for by by NHS London (DD824). The Mayor took over funding the HSL programme from March 2013.

The 2,053 London schools use the HSL website to access information and resources and also to apply for awards. The 29 Healthy Schools London borough leads use the website to access school applications and approve their awards. The constant growth in registrations and award applications demonstrate its usability and feedback is overwhelmingly positive from schools and boroughs about the user-friendly nature of the HSL website.

This proposal is to allocate money from the existing Healthy Schools London budget (part of the Health Team budget – MD 2323) to make changes to the design and structure of the existing HSL website in order to align it more closely to the Mayor of London branding and design guidelines. These changes have been approved by the GLA’s Digital team and Technology Group. These changes are necessary for the website to continue acting as a viable portal for engaging with schools and boroughs and for ensuring that the successful HSL programme is strongly identified as a Mayor of London programme.

In November 2017, we considered re-building the Healthy Schools London website into the main London.gov.uk website. This was dismissed for a number of reasons including technical incompatibility, and the issues of migrating large numbers of users including their usernames and passwords

Furthermore, the cost of building the Healthy Early Years London (HEYL) Website into the London.gov.uk was estimated at £90k, whereas the cost of reskinning the website so it looks like the London.gov.uk site can be achieved at a cost of £19,750.

A reskin, which is a re-design and re-structure, to mirror the website is seen as the best solution to updating the Healthy Schools London website as it creates a site that looks, feels and navigates like www.london.gov.uk in a cost effective way that is also familiar to the current schools and Borough Users that interact with the site. The site is not designed for the general public – it is aimed solely at London schools and London Borough Healthy Schools Leads.

HSL and TG made a change to the programme’s URL in 2016 to become more closely aligned with the www.london.gov.uk website. The revised URL is www.healthyschools.london.gov.uk

The proposed changes will create a website that is closely aligned with the Mayor of London website and brand with the look, feel, design, colour palette and structure used being the same as www.london.gov.uk The Digital team and Technology Group at the GLA have been closely involved in this work and will continue to be involved as the work is delivered. They will develop a technical specification and project manage the procurement and implementation of the work in order to ensure the most appropriate and cost-effective solution to this re-design. The Design and Marketing Team have already provided the design changes. The total anticipated cost is expected to be up to £19,750.

A full specification has been prepared that will be used by the TG to procure this support.

A Health Inequalities Impact Assessment (HIIA) was conducted in March of 2013, prior to HSL’s launch, to consider the impact of the programme on disadvantaged groups, who already suffer poorer health. The HIIA informed delivery of the HSL programme in order to minimise the risk of any potential negative impacts on disadvantaged groups.

A health inequalities mapping and participation analysis was conducted by the GLA Health Team to determine if the programme was having a positive effect on health inequalities. The analysis determined that London schools which have achieved the HSL Bronze award have a higher proportion of deprived pupils compared to schools which are not involved with the programme.

On average, schools that have achieved the Healthy Schools London Bronze award have 26% more pupils who are eligible for free school meals, looked after or are children of service personnel.

The target group for the Healthy Schools London website is primarily school staff who work on health and wellbeing, Headteachers and Healthy Schools London Borough Leads. The main purpose of the website is to provide information and resources to help schools to deliver Healthy Schools activities and also review what they are doing and apply for 3 levels of Awards. The website then enables Borough Leads to approve Awards. The website can also be accessed by members of the public. The only information that they can not access are the application forms which are only for schools. Members of the public can also register to receive a termly Newsletter to keep up to date with Healthy Schools London news.

a) Key Risks and Issues

b) Links to Mayoral Strategies and Priorities

The Healthy Schools London Programme supports the delivery of the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy as well as the response to the London Health Board, which maintains mental health and adolescent resilience and childhood obesity as priority areas. The Healthy Schools London Programme also has the potential to support delivery of a variety of Mayoral priorities related to the London Food Board, Child Obesity Task Force, Sports Team (Daily Mile), Culture Team (schools-based activities), TfL (STARS programme), Team London, planning (Take-aways near schools) teams.

c) Impact Assessments and Consultations

As mentioned in section 3 ‘Equality Comments’ the Healthy Schools London Programme has undergone a Health Inequalities Impact Assessment and a health inequalities mapping and participation analysis to ensure the programme does not negatively impact already disadvantaged groups. Additionally, the Healthy Schools London programme was developed with extensive stakeholder consultation, involving boroughs’ public health and education teams; teachers, headteachers, GLA colleagues and national government. This consultation work shaped the delivery model and helped to establish the necessary delivery networks. Stakeholder consultation continues to be an integral part of the programme’s delivery.

The estimated cost of this project is up to £19,750 and will be funded from the Healthy Schools London budget for 2018/19 held within the Health & Communities Unit. Any changes to this proposal, including budgetary implications will be subject to further approval via the Authority’s decision-making process. All appropriate budget adjustments will be made.