Child Health Issues in a School Setting - Essay Example

CHILD HEALTH ISSUES IN A SCHOOL SETTING Introduction Child health has been a matter of concern to many parents, teachers and those in ity. Schools have particularly found it difficult when dealing with the health of children. In the life path of a child growth, the school is an important setting since most of the time is spent in school. That is why measure put in place at schools are very important in determining the health of a child. The government has identified this as a challenge which need to be addressed and consequently it has moved fast to provide remedies. To respond to the rising need of provision to protect the health of children in schools, the United Kingdom government and school drafted the National Healthy Schools Programme. This was aimed at promoting the health of children in schools with a long term impact of reducing the health challenges that children are facing by the time they progress in schools. This is an inclusive programme where the government, teachers, parents, and children are all involved in implementing the health situation. The programme looks into improving the health of the children to help them perform well at schools. This programme was launched in 1999 as collaboration between the department of health and department for Children, schools and Families with an aim of bringing health inequalities among children. This was duet to the inequalities that were observed in schools children which made even their interaction difficulty. It was aimed at raising the achievement of pupils through improved performance and making the pupil more interactive with others. It was aimed at streamlining in the working of health providers and educational institutions in improving the overall health of pupils. This paper was revised in 2004 setting new targets for achieving health status of children by 2009 throughout implementation of some strategies. According to Treasury (2004), it mainly focuses on promoting healthy eating, increasing awareness of the need for physical exercise, and promoting the emotional health of the pupils. School Setting The school is an important institution that tries to shape the life of an individual child. It is aimed at helping an individual child realize their potential in life and live to realize these potentials. Hence it is aim at promoting the correct growth of a child. The amount of item a child spends in school in the entire life cycle can make a great difference in life. That is why this paper wants to identify the school as an important setting which should be used to influence any issue concerning the growth of a child. Growth is defined not only as development physically, by as development in areas of emotions and spiritual. Growth of a childe physical and emotionally is very important in determining the future person. On of the key component of growth both physically and emotionally is health. Health is an important issue that determines how an individual child develops. Health is both physical and emotional. Physical growth involves the attainment of well-being physically while mental growth will take in the issues of mental stability. As we have seen above, child health has been an issue of concern not only in the family set up but also in the school set up as well. School setting is an important area where health problem of pupils can be addressed and corrected at an early age before they become a health problem to the child in later life. Teachers have faced a lot of difficulties while dealing with child health in the United Kingdom. The levels of obesity among children have been rising at an alarming rate. Obesity is seen as one of the challenge that children face in their social life at schools and also due to the challenges it poses to the health of the child. Obese children have been found to lead an isolated life since they find it difficulty to mix with other children who are not obese. Obesity has posed a health risk to the children with rising cases of type II diabetes being recorded in the health centres. There has also been alarming figures concerting heart disease in children of school age in the United Kingdom. This led the British Heart Foundation to list the issue of obesity among children as one of the challenges faced. As has been discussed here, school setting is important in the growth of the child. If a child spends most time here, then there is need for measure to be taken to promoter the welfare of the child in schools. There is need for the protection of children in these schools not only in terms of protection from physical abuse, but also protection in terms of their heath both physically and mentally. Government Policy/ Legislation The world has perpetuated through nurturing of the young to grown ups who in turn nurture others generation after generation. The attention of a generation is solely focused on the next one to occupy its place. It is a wish of every generation that the subsequent will make the world better than it is now. This can only be enabling through nurturing a generation better than the current one. But this has been a challenge in United Kingdom. Lord Laming inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie was a revolution point in demanding for enactment of legislation to protect children. It amazed that entire Victoria died in the hands of the very one who are supposed to protect and nurture her to a better human being. It was still sad that the inquiry found out that the social services and other government bodies like the police also failed in protect Victoria which was seen as a neglect of the natural laws. Victoria's death was just one of many cases that other children had gone through. Children were still compounded by many problems including increased rates of teenage pregnancies, more and more children were living in low-income households, increased cases of obesity and mental problem in children, strict economic policies which limited the ability of children to achieve economic well being in life, and other challenges. Every one saw the need to address a long standing problem that has been affecting the welfare of children. According to Watson (2006), this needed multidimensional approaches which say the drafting and adoption of Every Child Matters strategies in 2003. The milestone in addressing the problem of child health in school has been legislation of the above mentioned act. The problem started to be addressed in 1999 as has been described in the above government legislation but was given more weight with the amendments of the Children's Act which had a provision of the "every child matters" clause. This legislation provided that legal guidelines that provided for the necessary changes that were necessary enhancing the welfare of children. "Every Child Matters is a programme that advocates for active change of children life through implementation of certain strategies that address some relevant areas in life" (Machin and Vignoles, 2005) This act identifies five areas that needed to be addressed in enhancing the children welfare in the United Kingdom. First it laid down strategies to address the health of children. It stated that children have a right to lead a healthy life. Secondly it stated the need to protect the children. Children have a right to stay in a safe environment free of any of abuse. Thirdly it stated the need for children to enjoy life and achieve their best in life. It stated the need to make an enabling atmosphere for children to help them achieve the best in their academic work. Fourth, it stated the need to help children to make a positive contribution toward the welfare of the society through support from the public and the government. Lastly it stated the need to have children achieve economic well being and lead a good life. The school is identified as been one of the most important institutions in society which can help in achieving what is laid in this paper. The school has been identified as the central institution to help the government realize all the provision of the above act because it is also central in the life of a student. As has been discussed earlier, the role a school play in the growth of a child is particularly important in determining the full grown individual. If the above areas have to be addressed in the welfare of a child, there is no doubt that almost all of them have to be cantered on the school life of a child. The children can make provision to the improvement of the health status of a child, it can make provision to have a safe environment for the child, it can help children enjoy life and guide them in achieving their ambition in life through proper guidance and counselling and also through offering the best academic standards, through social organization clubs and other ways schools can help children make a positive contribution to the life of others at home or in other schools, and finally it can put in place measure that will ensure that a child grows in all spheres of life in order to prosper and realize their dream career which will help them lead an economically well off life. The contributions that an education institution can make to realize the above are immense. This paper will concentrate on the health section of this strategy. It will look into details the provisions and what has been achieved so far in regarded to the implementation of the strategy in schools. There were many problems that needed to be addressed concerning the health of children in United Kingdom. There were many problems that compounded the welfare of children. Many children were affected by the problem of smoking which led to rising cases of cancer. There was a need to address the issue of stopping in children. The rising levels of obesity had to be addressed immediately to improve the health of children which has been rising day in day out. The rising cases of teenage pregnancies were alarming and United Kingdom still records high cases of teenage pregnancy in Europe. Here were still high levels of suicide in children which was attributed to mental stress. These and other problems continued to undermine the health welfare of children and had to be addressed. To address this strategy, the government has moved in to provide primary health care service. This is aimed at ensuring that more children have access to basic health care. It also moves to try and create a link between the government and the local communities in order to provide more specialized health care to the children. Every Child Matters created a children trust which also integrates primary health care as one of its goals. The government has moved in to provide specialized health care to children through the establishment of speech and language therapy. It has moved to increase the number of speech and language training centres by 31%. This has a special use in a school set up since it has helped to integrate children with speech problems into the mainstream of education. This has been crucial in ensuring that children with health problem attend schools. It has also helped to eliminate health barriers that undermine the capability of pupils to seek education. The act has also moved to address the issue of mental problems in children. A comprehensive child and adolescent mental health scheme which was launched in 2006 has been strategically aimed at addressing mental problems in children. This scheme strategies that people working with pupils should identify those with mental problems and seeks advice on the above body for help. The government also committed itself to engaging more qualified mental health workers in the primary health care program. The program was to be placed in different settings including home, school, health centres and other setting that deal with children. The mental health scheme was to address all mental problems affecting children including those children with learning disabilities. The health system also provide strategy for sexual health and HIV which was enacted in 2001 to address the issue of teenage pregnancies, STI's, and HIV issues affecting children. It also had strategies to reduce substance abuse. The school was identified as a very suitable setting to help curb the rising cases of substance abuse since teachers can monitor the activities of the pupils and note anything unusual that can be suspected to have been due to substance abuse. It also includes other ways of tackling social issue that are harmful to the health students which may arise from stressful situation that a child is subjected to. In school the National Health School Programme has provided efforts to help the government in achieving all the above. The school has achieved a lot in ensuring the health of the children. It has implemented health diets of children which are aimed at addressing the problem of obesity in children. This has not bee a success although it is attributed to diets outside the school. It has also addressed the issue through increased awareness of the need for physical activity. In conjunction with the Ant-social behaviour Act of 2003, it has joined hands to provide counselling services for children and also encouraged social inclusion of pupils to reduce emotional problem for pupils. According to Cheminais (2006), this has helped in reducing mental problems which has been contributing to high level of suicide among children. Assessment These strategies seem to have worked in meeting the targets. There has been improved heath of pupils and reduction of health related problems. But the problem of overweight and obesity is yet to be addressed and the percentage of obese children continues to rise. However other health risks like smoking has reduced. "Teenage pregnancies have as well reduced although UK is still leading in Western Europe in areas of teenage pregnancies. Strategies to tackle mental health have been a success and UK has registered low suicide in children" (Keid, 2005) There have been efforts to raise the level of awareness of teachers on the issue. The success of the programme has been attributed to high charged campaigns that have been aimed at teacher to make them realize the goals that the program wants to achieve and how it is to be achieved. The level of awareness has also been extended to other agencies dealing with children and particularly to parents who spends a considerable amount of time with the children. The program is monitored by the local authorities who collaborate with the government in provision of the strategy. Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group (WAMG) has been given mandate of monitoring the program in England in schools. "In monitoring, the aims of the program are the one that are used in the monitoring process. The five aims are the goals of the program and like wise forms the parameters to be monitored". (DES, 2004) Conclusion Every Child Matters is a good program that can help resolve health problems that affect children in school. However no single agency can achieve this and it calls for the collaboration of many agencies dealing with the children. It has impacted positively on children life and still there is hope that it will give more light on protection of our children. The assessment of the program is bound to shed more light on the achievement of the program. References Every Child Matters: A practical Guide for Teacher. Cheminais, R. (2006). Abingdon, Routledge. Department for Education and Skills (2004): Every child matters: The Next Steps. DfES, 2004 Report. Patrol care in education. The Implications of Every Child matters and the Children Act for Schools, Vol. 23(1): 13-19. Keid, K (2005). What's good education The Economics of Education in the United Kingdom; Princeton University Press Machin, S. & Vognoles, A. (2005): Every Child Matters. Treasury, H. M. (2004): Oxford University Press Every Child Matters and children rights; International Journal of Children's Spirituality, Vol. 11(2): 23-40. Watson, J. (2006). Read More