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School Public Health Update December 2018

The School Public Health Service would like to thank our partners in education for supporting us in the delivery of our service this term.

Without your continued support it would not be possible to provide a public health service to the children and young people in Kent who are accessing mainstream education.

You will have noticed our Public Health Assistants who have been coming into schools to carry out the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) weighing and measuring children in year R and year 6 in line with national guidance. Whilst we will have seen the majority of children before the Christmas break this will continue into early January when we will also catch up the children who were absent at the first session.

We would also like to extend our huge appreciation to schools that have supported the teams to deliver the Lancaster (HAPI) healthy lifestyle questionnaires to the parents of children in Reception class and to the students in Year 6. We will be contacting you again in January to offer further opportunities for Year R parents and Year 6 students to complete the questionnaires and will be grateful for your assistance in sending out the letters to parents so they are aware of the offer.

In January we will be opening the links for pupils in Year 10 to access the Lancaster (HAPI) healthy lifestyle questionnaire. You will be provided with information regarding this and as always we are happy to answer any queries you may have.

As many of you know we provide a texting service to students aged between 11 and 19. Chathealth is a confidential service where young people can have direct contact with a member of the School Public Health Team via text with the offer of face to face support if needed around a range of public health topics. We would appreciate if you could ensure students are aware of this aspect of the service which is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. The number is 07520 618850. This is available over the schools Christmas break with the exception of 25 and 26 December; and 1 January.

Our website is available to all young people for advice, information and access to support.

Finally, the School Public Health Service would like to wish all our colleagues in education a very merry Christmas and a happy new year and we look forward to working with you in 2019.

Contact Details

If you have concerns about a child’s health, wellbeing or development, please do not hesitate to contact our team via the details below:

School Public Health Service
Telephone: 0300 1234496
Email: nem-tr.kentchildrenandyoungpeoplehealthservices@nhs.net