Health Protection

Health Protection

Healthy pupils means fewer school days missed. Schools have a role to play in preventing the spread of illness.

National Guidance

Health protection in schools and other childcare facilities  is a practical guide for staff on managing cases of infectious diseases in childcare settings. It contains chapters as follows:

What infections are, how they are transmitted and those at higher risk of infection.
Preventing and controlling infections
Supporting immunisation programmes
Managing outbreaks and incidents
Managing specific infectious diseases: A to Z
Specific settings and populations: additional health protection considerations
Children and young people settings: tools and resources – including an exclusion table to indicate the time period an individual should not attend a setting.

Current education setting guidance for respiratory infections, including coronavirus (COVID-19)

Emergency planning and response for education, childcare, and children’s social care settings is guidance about how educational and childcare settings should plan for and deal with emergencies, including significant public health incidents and severe weather.

Looking after children before and during hot weather is a subsection of the Adverse Weather and Health Plan which sets out advice and guidance in the event of weather that could have an impact on vulnerable people and communities.

Statutory Guidance

Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school is statutory guidance about the support that pupils with medical conditions should receive at school. Schools will be aware of their requirements in relation to children and young people with medical conditions and should continue to review their policy and its implementation regularly.

HIAS no longer offers training to support these requirements. Schools should therefore seek guidance and source training independently. HIAS is unable to recommend external providers as they do not engage in these quality assurance activities and cannot promote one provider over another.

Advice and Resources

Is my child too unwell to go to school today? Parents can be signposted to this guide on the Healthier Together website to assess whether their child is well enough to go to school or should be kept at home to recover and when to seek medical advice, from a pharmacist of GP practice.

Immunisation resources for schools and Measles promotional resources aimed at parents and carers to remind them to check that their child is up to date with their vaccinations

Asthma Friendly Schools - Information on how to achieve Asthma Friendly Schools status, letters, templates and posters.

E-Bug is operated by UK Health Security Agency. It is a health education programme that aims to promote positive behaviour change among children and young people to support infection prevention and control efforts and to respond to the global threat of antimicrobial resistance. It provides evidence-based teaching resources from Early Years to Key Stage 4 and are accredited by The Association for Science Education.

There are Key Stage appropriate lessons plans that cover hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene and oral hygiene. As well as other sessions around vaccinations, microbes and antibiotics.

Tick awareness this toolkit provides background information on ticks, the risk of Lyme disease, how to improve awareness of ticks and mitigate against tick-borne diseases.

Sunscreen and Sun Safety information from the NHS