Excerpt from Health-promoting schools: a resource for developing indicators, (2006) Schools for Health Europe, Amsterdam
Tomáš Blaha Development of a regional strategy to support health-promoting schools in the Czech Republic pp 169-172
Two sets of health-promoting schools indicators are already available in the Czech Republic: one set for kindergartens (12 indicators) and one set for primary schools (9 indicators). The coordinating team of the Czech Network of Health Promoting Schools developed sets of tools for self-evaluating these indicators at schools. The issue chosen for this case study is the regional strategy of the Czech Network of Health Promoting Schools, as this is currently an important component in the
programme of work. It has been necessary to delegate part of the coordination of the Czech Network of Health Promoting Schools from the national level to the regional level. The regional strategy has developed two kinds of indicators. The quantitative indicators are the numbers of: partners involved, contacts and activities and schools in the Czech Network of Health Promoting Schools. The qualitative indicators include the needs of partners in the context of every region, the satisfaction of partners within the team, the satisfaction of schools in regions with contacts and the activities of the team in every region. Main findings. Ten regional health-promoting schools networks have been established of the planned 14. The analysis of needs produced the following findings
Regional partners need from the coordinating team of the Czech Network of Health Promoting Schools:• a clear outline of the regional health-promoting schools strategy; and • a specific statement on the roles and objectives of every partner institute involved.Health-promoting schools counsellors need from the coordinating team of theCzech Network of Health Promoting Schools:• experiences from other regions; • greater involvement by the Ministry of Education and regional authorities
(departments of education); and • publicity for the health-promoting schools programme
The success of the whole regional strategy mainly depends on specific individuals and their motivation. We also faced some obstacles in accomplishing the planned schedule from institutions that had to sign key letters and individuals, since the
health-promoting schools counsellors are very busy volunteers. There have also been challenges in motivation. Institutions (the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the regional authorities (departments of education)) still have little motivation to support the regional health-promoting schools strategy. Further, there are some unclear matters in competencies
between the staff of regional public health authorities and public health institutes.