HEG launches School’s Pledge programme for Cheshire & Merseyside

The School’s Pledge for a Healthy and Active Future (hereon School’s Pledge) is a preventative programme of work developed by the Food Active team at HEG to enhance wellbeing and encourage active lifestyles and healthier weight in schools. The School’s Pledge is underpinned by a framework of nine core commitments which emphasise promoting nutritious eating habits and fostering active lifestyles, in alignment with existing school policies.

The School’s Pledge was initially piloted in schools based in Knowsley and Leeds over the past two years. Positive feedback and valuable insights gained from these participating schools have been instrumental in evolving the School’s Pledge into an updated framework that has now been funded by NHS Cheshire and Merseyside’s Population Health Programme for delivery in schools across the nine local authority areas in the sub-region. The School’s Pledge is currently being rolled out to a first cohort of 27 schools between February to July this year, and as the funding for the programme is addressing health inequalities, all schools participating are based in areas that are in the highest 20% of deprivation.

HEG is working with all nine local authority public health teams across Cheshire and Merseyside to engage school in the programme which consists of three key phases:

October 2024 – February 2025: Consultation Stage: This phase involved reviewing and redeveloping the School’s Pledge ‘Core Commitments’, support resources for schools, and an updated evidence base review, whilst working with public health teams to recruit three schools per local authority.

March 2025 – June 2025: Adoption Phase: The first three schools in each area are now adopting the pledge with structured guidance from public health nutritionist within the Food Active Team, including bi-monthly check-in meetings with schools and facilitated network meetings which include participating schools and public health teams for each local authority area.

July 2025 – March 2026: Network and Expansion Phase: During this stage, progress and learning will be shared, and delivery will expand to five additional schools per local authority, with the potential to include SEND schools.

Participating schools are encouraged to collaborate with staff from HEG’s Food Active team and take advantage of resources offered, including a comprehensive digital support pack. HEG has taken a co-production approach to development of the programme, working closely with teachers, governors, school nurses, parents, and local authority colleagues to ensure successful delivery. In addition to adopting new health promoting policies and changes to operational practices within schools, the programme is giving schools the opportunity to network, exchange best practices, and gain insights from one another’s experiences. HEG is also working with researchers from the University of Liverpool and Open University to capture outcomes and impact as part of a programme evaluation process.

For more information about the programme, please contact: schools@heg.org.uk