Pupils have also been trained as 'health ambassadors' and hold theme-led assemblies on a range of health issues. Photograph: Rivington and Blackrod high schoolIt could easily have been a bureaucratic nightmare that failed at the first hurdle. The dilemma was how do you bring together the NHS, local government, education and sports centres to deliver a school-based health project that the students would be happy to use?
The answer, according to Michelle Howard, director of business development at Rivington and Blackrod high school in Lancashire, was to be committed to the vision and have the confidence and trust in each other to share information and best practice.
"We worked with all our partners to ensure that all our procedures and practices worked well together," she says. "We learned so much more about each other and how we could best use our skills, resources and specialisms to deliver the best outcomes for us all. It was also about sharing that responsibility."
The teenage health project at Rivington and Blackrod high school and the Active Health scheme at its linked federated school, Ladybridge high school, has gone from strength to strength since it was first established in 2007.
The intention, following wide consultation with parents, young people, the local community and public services, was to create a student-friendly accessible health and wellbeing service offering advice, guidance and information on the school site. "It started out when we were looking at Every Child Matters, which was on everybody's minds at the time," says Howard. "It was about looking at what we could do to help young people stay healthy and safe."
A steering party was set up, which included representatives from parents, pupils, schools, the local authority and leisure providers to design and develop the project, which had £450,000 of Big Lottery Fund money.
Today more than 3,000 young people have made use of the project, which offers them a range of advice and information including healthy eating, sexual health and contraception and drug and alcohol awareness.
Support for emotional wellbeing and advice about how to cope with stress is also offered by the project, which is run by school nurses alongside a project co-ordinator who can refer students to different services as required. "There isn't one aspect of health that we shy away from," says Howard.
School students have also been trained as "health ambassadors" – taking the healthy message to their classmates by holding theme-led assemblies and teaching them how to carry out CPR and other lifesaving first aid skills.
At the same time, 13 members of staff have learned about healthy eating and nutrition and are now passing on their knowledge to students across the school.
The project, says Howard, has generally improved the students' physical and emotional health. But there have been more tangible results: the behaviour of 81% of children who attended its anger management programme has improved; the local teenage pregnancy rate has started to fall and 87% of children who received counselling said they were feeling better.
Howard attributes the success of the project to the depth of the relationships between the different partners. She says: "It's about trust and acknowledging that 'I am really good at this' and saying 'how can we work together to get the best outcomes?'. We also had a very strong vision, which we all focused on and never lost sight of."
This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to receive regular emails and exclusive offers.
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