Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on steps to improve health literacy for (a) primary school-aged children and (b) secondary school-aged children.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regularly discusses a range of issues, including health literacy in schools, with cabinet colleagues.

Public Health England (PHE), Health Education England, NHS England and Community Health and Learning Foundation, are working together to develop, test and implement a range of strategic and practical interventions towards improving health literacy.

School nurses are specialist public health nurses who lead the Healthy Child Programme (5-19). They deliver evidence-based public health interventions both within and out of school settings.

The Health Literacy toolkit has been produced with support from Public Health England and is designed to help school nurses improve the health literacy of children and young people. The Association for Young People’s Health AYPH toolkit, commissioned by PHE, can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.youngpeopleshealth.org.uk/health-literacy

The ‘School aged years high impact area 6: seamless transition and preparation for adulthood’ provides robust evidence for school nurses to support young people preparing for adulthood, access to information and support, and knowledge of services to help keep them healthy. ‘School aged years high impact area 6: Seamless transition and preparation for adulthood’ can be viewed at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/754809/school_aged_years_high_impact_area_6.pdf