Scottish Government

Rationale

Criteria

Achieved

Action Plan

A shift in emphasis from a service based on routine surveillance and monitoring towards one based on local needs requires a clear understanding of needs and an agreed plan to prioritise and address them.

Without a systematic assessment of need, identification of priorities and a plan to address the needs, practice will be unplanned, fragmented and difficult to assess and audit.

• Public health nurses are responsible for the development of a structured needs assessment and school profile for each school in their school cluster(s).

• Public health practitioners provide support and guidance in the development of school profiles, ensuring that the information is linked to wider community profiles.

• Profiling is undertaken on a multi - agency basis, agreed with relevant colleagues to provide a broad based assessment of need.

• The whole school community, including children and young people and their parents are involved in aspects of the assessment, prioritising and planning process.

• Identified needs are prioritised in partnership with stakeholders to formulate a school health plan.

• The school health service, the LHCC and the school sign off the final prioritised plan.

• School health plans form part of LHCC plans and school development plans, linking to wider planning and priority setting processes.

• Progress with implementation of the school health plan is reviewed regularly to ensure progress towards the agreed outcomes and allow flexibility in response to changing need.

• Evaluation of the plan is undertaken to inform future developments.

• School health profiles and plans are used to inform Joint Health Improvement Plans, Community Plans and School Development Plans.