ADD2334 Delivery support for Healthy Schools London

The Mayor wants to see all London’s children enjoying environments that allow them to develop well and thrive, and to help more children achieve a healthy weight, particularly in deprived communities. Furthermore, the Mayor wants all Londoners to feel comfortable talking about their mental health, and to see an end to the stigma people face due to mental health problems. To support children to have the best start in life, he wants their mental health and wellbeing to be better supported across a wide range of settings. Furthermore, children in London are more likely to be overweight or obese than their peers in the rest of England.

Delivering the Healthy Early Years London and the Healthy Schools London programmes helps children develop, play and learn in healthy settings. The Mayor’s Healthy Schools London programme, (funded under MD 1151 and MD 1551), supports London’s schools to provide an environment and culture that helps their pupils grow up to be healthy, happy and learn. The programme recognises and celebrates schools that are making a difference for their pupils. The Healthy Schools London programme supports schools as they work towards awards, with a network of local Borough coordinators, and a range of resources, tools and advice provided through a website and regular workshops for Boroughs and schools. There are 3 levels of Awards: Bronze, Silver and Gold. The Bronze Award asks schools to provide information about how they are taking a whole school approach to supporting pupil wellbeing across 4 themes:

• Healthy Eating
• Physical Activity
• Emotional Health & Wellbeing
• Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE)

Healthy Schools London is a mechanism for the Mayor to achieve many of the objectives laid out in his Health Inequalities Strategy (HIS). HSL supports schools to address the following issues:

• Child obesity: schools promote healthy weight via healthy eating and physical activity in schools including ‘water only schools’ and The Daily Mile.
• Mayor’s Child Obesity Taskforce: supporting the work of the Taskforce including the roll out of water only schools and encouraging school engagement.
• Air Quality: Promoting active travel to school and improving air quality around schools.
• Youth Mental Health First Aid Training: many of the Healthy Schools London Borough Leads have undertaken training to become youth mental health first aid instructors in London boroughs to deliver training in schools.

Originally launched in April 2013, the programme has since gained the support of 27 London Boroughs which now have a local Healthy Schools Programme or equivalent local support for schools. 2146 (84%) London schools have registered to the HSL programme. Of these, 1239 schools have already achieved a Bronze Award, 679 have achieved a Silver Award and 284 a Gold Award.

The Mayor’s HSL programme consists of a core, GLA-based delivery team co-ordinating and supporting the work of Borough level leads. To augment the core GLA capacity, the GLA HSL Team is seeking to procure additional delivery support in the form of support to borough leads and schools.

This ADD provides authority to spend £25,000 of funding that was carried over from the previous financial year (2018/19) to support schools and Boroughs to engage further with delivering Healthy Schools London in their schools.

Support the delivery of the Mayor’s Healthy Schools London programme by building local capacity in London Boroughs and schools by providing:

- example measurable outcomes
- template policies (eg. mental health and wellbeing policy, school food…)
- guidance and checklists for Quality Assurance of Award applications.

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 groups with protected characteristics.

More recently, 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.

Key Risks and Issues

Links to Mayoral Strategies and Priorities

The HSL Programme supports the delivery of the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy as well as the response to the London Health Commission and the work of the London Health Board, which maintains mental health and adolescent resilience as one of its priorities. The HSL programme also supports the delivery of a variety of Mayoral priorities including the Mayor’s Food strategy, Sports Strategy, Education and Youth Team programmes including London Schools’ for Success programme, TfL STARS programme, GLA Planning Team (Superzones) and Team London.

Impact Assessments and Consultations

As mentioned in section 3 the HSL 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 HSL 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.

Approval is being sought for expenditure of up to £25,000 to procure specialist support. This expenditure will be funded by the 2019-20 Healthy Schools London Budget, held within the Health Unit.

Delivery support for the HSL programme will be delivered via external, expert support procured in line with GLA HR procedures. The anticipated timeline is as follows: