Health Promoting Establishments

On this page:

• Background to the scheme
• Settings for the scheme
• What is a Health Promoting Establishment?

Other information for professionals and establishments

• News, events and training
• Supporting resources and contacts
• Funding opportunities

These pages are a local resource for Children & Families establishments in the City of Edinburgh and any health professionals, partner agencies and others with an interest or involvement in this process. They provide general information on the Children & Families Health Promoting Establishments (HPE) scheme and contain subsections specific to each setting.

Background to the scheme

The Children & Families department has made good progress towards meeting the Scottish Government target for all schools to become health promoting. To demonstrate its commitment to promoting the health of all children, young people and families in Edinburgh, the Department has now set a target in its Service Improvement Plan to extend the Health Promoting Schools scheme to all types of Children and Families establishments. This will provide a structured and focused approach to achieving positive health and wellbeing outcomes across the department and will help all establishments to gain recognition for their achievements.

In order to establish a strategic, unified departmental approach to the development of health promoting establishments, a HPE framework document has been produced to support the roll-out of the scheme. Drawing on experience from the Health Promoting Schools scheme, it provides broad guidance on how to develop an accreditation scheme and highlights factors that need to be considered in setting this up. Strategic staff are currently working on developing more detailed guidance to support specific groups of establishments.

Settings for the HPE scheme

Schools

Health Promoting Schools continues to be successfully implemented across all primaries, secondaries and special schools in the City. All schools and nurseries are registered as working towards HPS status and 96% are currently accredited. A significant number of those have also achieved, or are working towards, accreditation at levels 2 and 3.

Find out more about Health Promoting Schools

Early Years

94% of departmental nurseries are already accredited under the Health Promoting Schools Scheme. Guidance notes for departmental nurseries were developed early on in the roll-out of HPS, and will be reviewed and adapted as necessary for use by partner provider nurseries and Child and Family Centres. A working group is currently developing setting-specific support materials and a suitable accreditation approach for Early Years.

Community Learning and Development

CLD has developed guidance for the development of health promoting community centres and is currently rolling out this scheme across all its community centres.

Find out more about Health Promoting Community Centres

Residential units/secure units

Guidance for health promoting units was launched in November 2008. All units are currently engaged in implementing this scheme. An external evaluation of the early impact of this scheme will be undertaken during the second half of 2009.

What is a health promoting establishment?

The World Health Organisation states that health is ‘...the extent to which an individual or group is able, on the one hand, to realise aspirations and satisfy needs, and on the other hand, to change or cope with the environment. Health is therefore seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living: it is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources as well as physical capabilities’ (WHO, 1984).

A health promoting establishment can be characterised as a setting that is constantly strengthening its capacity as a healthy environment for living, learning and working. It is not simply about encouraging children and young people to eat well and be active, but encompasses a much broader holistic approach, which includes promoting the physical, social, spiritual, mental and emotional wellbeing of everyone within the establishment.

There are 6 aspects to a health promoting establishment which all need to be considered. These components interact dynamically to create a health promoting establishment:

An overview of relevant national and local policies supporting the development of this work can be found in the HPE framework document (Word, 1MB).