Agenda item

Bev Pepperdine, Senior Project Officer, Performance & Quality, Children and Young People's Services, and Lorna Quinn, Public Health Intelligence Principal, Public Health, Adult Care, Housing, and Public Health, to present

 

Lorna Quinn, Public Health Intelligence Principal, and Kaylynn Nogowczyk, Public Health Intelligence Analyst, presented the 2024 Rotherham School Student Survey drawing attention to the following:-

 

Background

-        Full review of questions and partner consultation

-        Aligned to HBSC where possible (academic year and age)

-        Health and Wellbeing Board ask last year

-        Respondents and optional questions

-        Survey monkey issue

-        Dissemination and further ad hoc/detailed reports

 

2024 Areas for Consideration

-        Follow up to areas from last year

-        Belonging and Safety

-        Substance use

-        Protected characteristics

 

2023 Follow-up

-        Food and Drink Consumption

·        Last year 1,195 students (26.4%) did not have breakfast.  This year 17.6% of students reported never eating breakfast during the week

·        There was no significant difference in the amount of young people reporting drinking regular sugary, fizzy drinks at least once a day in Rotherham or nationally, 12.8% and 12% respectively

·        Compared to 2023 when 60.3% reported never drinking high energy drinks, 7.5% more students now report drinking high energy drinks

-        Physical Health

·        There have been no significant changes in how students rate their physical health since 2017.  This year 27.3% of respondents rated their physical health as ‘excellent’, 52.4% rated their physical health as ‘good’

·        Last year 21% reported a long-term illness.  This year it was 29.5% (nationally this was 25%)

-        Mental Health

·        Last year 57.2% of respondents rated their mental health as good or excellent and this year 59.7% rated their mental health as good/excellent

 

2024 Results

Participation and Demographic

-        All 16 schools participated and 3 Pupil Referral Units

-        4,641 students in total (4,919 last year)

-        263 children stated they live in a Children’s Residential Home or with Foster Carers (5.7%, last year was 3.9%)

-        72% White British, 6% Pakistani, 3% ‘Other White Background’

-        2021 Census population data reports Rotherham as 91% White British and 9% Other Ethnic Groups

-        For dependent children, Census data reports 81.4% White British and 18.6% All Other Ethnic Groups

-        Young person shows 15% from ethnic minority

 

Belonging and Safety – Community and School

Overall Community Belonging

-        59.6% of students feel safe in the area where they live

-        44.8% of students can trust the people in the area where they live

-        61.7% of students could ask for help from neighbours

-        Year 7 views were more positive overall and a higher proportion of Year 7 students stated they felt safe during the day and after dark

-        Since 2022, question introduction, there has been no significant change to how safe students feel during the day or after dark

 

Belonging and Safety – Bullying

-        1,415 students (42.6%) reported they have been bullied in the last 6 months.  Nationally this was 35%

-        Girls in Year 7 had the highest reports of bullying

-        The number has seen an overall increase since 2017

 

Substance Use – Alcohol

-        38.6% (1,307) respondents stated they had had an alcoholic drink before (21.4% Year 7/58.9% Year 10).  Overall this  number has been increasing (1,259 last year)

-        Similar to the national survey, prevalence was more common among Year 10 students particularly among girls

-        Alcohol was reported to be obtained from home with family/carers aware of the consumption in 59.7% of responses (a similar patter 2019-2023)

 

Substance Use – Drugs

-        10.6% (357) reported trying a drug/substance before

90 in Year 7 |(49%) and 267 in Year 10 (17.3%)

Compared with 12.9% in 2023

-        The most common substances tried were:

Solvents (83 respondents vs 24 in 2023 and 17 in 2022)

Cocaine (74 respondents vs 30 in 2023 and 12 in 2022)

-        186 students knew where to buy drugs locally with 191 responding to say it is easy to obtain drugs locally

-        77 had been asked to store or sell drugs for someone

-        Views on drug use (whether they are OK to use) have remained similar from 2017 with 10% or less stating they think it is not OK to use drugs

 

Ethnicity

-        No significant differences between ethnicity and how you would describe physical health

-        Mental health is mixed across ethnicities

-        Loneliness in the last 6 months was highest in the Mixed ethnicity group and lowest in the Asian ethnicity group

-        For bullying, this was lowest (good) for Asian and highest (bad) for Mixed and White British ethnicity

 

Sexuality

-        Results for Year 7 (2,554 students) show that

      83% (2,108) participants described themselves as heterosexual

      11% preferred not to answer (122) or did not yet know (161)

      5% (116) described themselves as bisexual

      2% (47) described themselves as lesbian or gay

-        Results for Year 10 (2,042 students) show that

      83% (1,680) participants described themselves as heterosexual

      8.3% preferred not to answer (90) or did not yet know

      6% (119) described themselves as bisexual

      4% (74) described themselves as lesbian or gay

-        Fair or poor mental health was highest (bad) in those that were bisexual or lesbian/gay

-        Hate crime was highest in people who were bisexual or lesbian/gay

 

Next Steps

-        Report to schools

-        Findings shared with key consultees and professionals

-        Ad hoc reports developed

 

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

 

-        The Authority used an academic year whereas the HSBC used a calendar year

-        Different consultation software would be sought for the next survey

-        The number of “Looked After Children” was probably inflated as some young people had clicked “yes” as they were looked after by their parents

-        It was unfortunate that surveys such as this did not give the context to the question

 

Lorna and Kaylynn were thanked for their presentation.

 

Resolved:-  That the outcome of the 2024 Rotherham School Student Survey be noted.