Health and wellbeing survey hopes to identify the needs of Orkney’s children and young people

Councillors have recommended setting up a short-life working group to consider a voluntary health and wellbeing survey for Orkney’s children and young people.

During the academic year 2021/22, all local authorities in Scotland were asked by the Scottish Government to make a health and wellbeing census available to P5-S6 pupils.

At this week’s Education, Leisure and Housing Committee meeting, the Council’s Head of Education, Peter Diamond, said: “Due to concerns over the survey tool, the decision was taken to suspend work on the survey until a wider and more inclusive consultation exercise could be carried out.

“The proposed survey attracted significant adverse attention nationally due to issues over confidentiality and the human rights of the participants, as well as the manner in which some of the topics were approached by the survey.

“As a result, our member/officer working group will be looking at the style and content of the proposed survey. It is important that we ensure our survey questions are age appropriate for each participant age group.

“If the survey helps us identify the needs of our children and young people, by giving them a voice to express themselves with absolute honesty, then we will have information that is incredibly powerful and makes the survey worthwhile.

“We aim to have this piece of work completed by December 2023 and the survey conducted between March and May 2024.”

Representatives of the working group will include elected members, teachers, and education leaders, as well as representatives from Orkney Health and Care, NHS Orkney, Community Learning and Development, the Papdale Halls of Residence and the Third Sector.