Asthma Friendly Schools Programme
The Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System Asthma Team are inviting all schools in the Hertfordshire and West Essex to achieve ‘Asthma Friendly School’ status. This is part of our strategy to improve the management of all children with asthma in the locality.
Over the last year we have worked closely with schools and GP practices in the area to create an asthma pathway for children and young people, based on the NHSE Bundle of Care for children and young people with asthma, which set out best practice for asthma care.
What does this mean for schools in Hertfordshire and West Essex?
‘Asthma Friendly School’ status will be awarded annually to schools achieving the following:
- Named ‘Asthma Champion’ – individual responsible for asthma in school
- Register of all children and young people with asthma
- Management plan for each child
- A policy for inhaler techniques and care of the children and young people with asthma
- A policy regarding emergency treatment
- A system for identifying children who are missing school because of their asthma or who are not partaking in sports or other activities due to poor control
The benefits of becoming an ‘Asthma Friendly School’ include:
- Improving asthma awareness and management in the school
- Improving support to students with asthma encouraging an inclusive environment
- Supporting responsibilities for the health, safety and wellbeing of students and staff
- Ensures the school is implementing current and best practice asthma management strategies
- Enables the school to promote its self-evaluated status to ensure that the community is aware of the school's commitment to ‘Asthma Friendly’ strategies
Part of this project relates to identifying children whose asthma is not well controlled. We have created a form which we are asking the Asthma Champion in each school to complete to identify children that have missed school or activities because of their asthma, in an effort to reduce school absence, hospital attendances and admissions. This approach is already in place in other areas like Hillingdon, Surrey, and Islington. It has enabled those areas to provide support and intervention at an early stage to improve the management of children with asthma. For more information contact Hertfordhsire & West Essex Integrated Care Board - hweicbenh.cypteam@nhs.net.
For the majority of children and young people with asthma, their symptoms will be well controlled with preventative medication, however, poor control of symptoms can impact on their quality of life, affecting sleep, school attendance and ability to participate in their usual activities. Even those with mild asthma can suffer a life threatening attack if their symptoms are not well controlled, and sadly children and young people are still dying preventable deaths.
Schools are a significant part of achieving NHS England’s ambition to reduce avoidable harm to children and young people. Becoming an Asthma Friendly school will support with early intervention to help improve the management of asthma, improve poor school attendance and reduce the risk of a severe asthma attack. It aims to provide school staff with information, training and resources to achieve this.
How do we become an Asthma Friendly School?
To achieve the key objectives listed below and become an Asthma Friendly School in Hertfordshire and West Essex you will need to start by doing two things:
- Contact Hertfordshire & West Essex Integrated Care Board at hweicbenh.cypteam@nhs.net to inform them that you would like to become an asthma friendly school.
- Start to work through the key objectives using the recommendations in the supporting documents such as completing necessary training
Once your school has achieved the outlined objectives your local place team will present your school with our Hertfordshire and West Essex Asthma Friendly Schools Certificate
Training for all school staff in Asthma Awareness:
All staff in school to be trained in asthma awareness e-learning CYP asthma Tier 1 training to achieve Asthma Friendly School status.
We encourage anyone who supports children and young people to complete the above CYP Asthma Tier 1 training module. This may include, but is not limited to:
- teachers and school support staff
- youth workers
- children’s group leaders (e.g. wraparound and holiday clubs, uniform groups, sports and hobby clubs);
- staff working in Children and Family Centres
- social care and housing staff
- parents, carers, and friends of young people with asthma.