Monkey’s health service: an evaluation of the implementation of resources designed to support the learning of primary school-aged children in England about healthy lifestyles and NHS services

Abstract

The National Health Service Institute for Innovation and Improvement was established to help the NHS to improve healthcare by rapidly developing and disseminating knowledge and evidence about new ways of working. One example is the Emergency and Urgent Care Pathway for Children and Young People which focused on providing high quality and safe healthcare for children and young people requiring urgent or emergency treatment for the most common illnesses and injuries. Monkey’s Guide to Healthy Living and NHS Services was developed to increase awareness of acute health services in primary school-aged children. This free resource was posted to every primary school in England. A process and impact evaluation was undertaken to explore how the resource was being utilized during 2013–2014. A small number of in-depth case studies were developed involving classroom-based observations and teacher interviews along with a much larger online survey which was emailed to all primary schools in England. On the whole, the resource was viewed as useful, engaging, and informative; with children, teachers, and other professionals particularly valuing the monkey puppet, video clips, and teacher resources. The National Evaluation highlighted that most respondents integrated the materials into the curriculum, used them as a one-off lesson, or developed their own innovative and strategic approaches to make the best use of the resources; almost two-thirds of schools who responded to the survey felt the resources led to pupils knowing about the available NHS services and healthy lifestyles; over half felt pupils were now more informed about the most appropriate services to use.

• Children’s health
• NHS
• primary resources

Acknowledgments

The Evaluation Project Team would like to thank all of the children, parents, schools, professionals and organisations who have assisted in providing information which has contributed to this paper. In particular we would like to thank Kath Evans, (NHS Institute For Innovation and Improvement); Helen Sadler (AhHa Publications); Anita Batchelor (Synergygroup.U.K.); Angela Horsley (Chair of the Association of Chief Children’s Nurses) and Wendy Nicholson and Fiona Hill (Department of Health) for the additional support they provided to ensure successful completion of the project.

As highlighted in the report this work was undertaken by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement which formally closed on the 31.3.13. Ongoing oversight for the work has been maintained by the Patient Experience Team at NHS England. Opportunities exist for further work on school resources to be led by NHS England and Public Health England.

Declaration of interest

This project was commissioned as an independent evaluation and the research was carried out without the direct involvement of the commissioners or resource development team.