Case Studies - Agency Partners

South West Essex PCT

South West Essex PCT began working with Youth-Bytes in 2006, placing the service into the two Further Education Colleges in the region. In early 2007, based up on the success of this initial pilot, Youth-Bytes was rolled out further to six secondary schools. Youth-Bytes was also commissioned to build a specific young peoples website for the PCT that could be promoted as a stand alone site as well as linked to from the interactive message bar on the college and school PC’s: Young Health Website. There were 2,227 click-throughs to the site in the first six weeks of activity at the schools and the project has now been rolled out to a further 18 schools in the area.

“It is hoped that by using IT rather than traditional leaflets and posters they can encourage students to access reputable health websites and gain up to date information about key issues affecting them or people they care about. We will have direct access to the young health website (www.younghealth.co.uk) which uses lots of hyperlinks to direct students to safe and secure web pages offering lots of up to date and youth focused information. By encouraging students to access better information and developing their skills to make choices we hope to support our young people in making decisions for themselves and their health”.

Melody Williams, Head of Health Improvement for Children & Young People, SWE NHS