Tayside health bosses have agreed to spend £150,000 of charitable donations on a Dundee schools scheme that uses older pupils to teach younger ones about sex.
Health Buddies have been operating as a pilot scheme at Menzieshill High School and Morgan Academy for the past year, introduced in a bid to reduce teenage pregnancies.
S3 pupils are recruited and trained and pass on their knowledge about sex and relationships to S1 pupils.
Tayside has consistently reported the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Scotland and is under pressure to bring down the numbers of schoolgirl conceptions.
Health Buddies is just one of the ways NHS Tayside is trying to tackle the problem. The scheme has attracted interest from elsewhere.
Trustees of NHS Tayside Endowment Fund, meeting in Kings Cross Hospital on Wednesday agreed to provide £150,000 from the charitable fund to continue the programme and extend the scheme to two more schools in Dundee.
The schools have yet to be identified but are expected to be in the city’s more deprived communities, where there are higher rates of teenage pregnancies.
Trustee John Angus said that if, following evaluation, the scheme proves to be successful, the health service and the education department will have to find the money to finance the programme in the longer term.
“They would not be looking for any more funding from endowments,” said Mr Angus.InterestHe said some schools in Perth and Kinross are interested in the programme. Although they are not part of the scheme, the materials used in the Dundee schools could be adapted for use elsewhere.
At a later meeting of the board of NHS Tayside, members were told the Health Buddies project has been awarded a Diana certificate of excellence.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Award for Inspirational Young People was established in 1999 to appreciate and celebrate the contribution young people make to their school, family or community, especially those who are peer mentors like the Health Buddies.
The judging panel found Dundee’s teenage buddies to be “wonderful role models.”
The Health Buddies team will receive a certificate signed by the Prime Minister, and a trophy.
Trustees also approved £19,200 from the endowment fund for the benefit of severely disabled children. The cash will be spent on an upgrade of the sensory room at Glenlaw House on the Kings Cross site, where children go for respite to give families a break from round-the-clock caring.
A further £15,296 of charitable funding was approved to convert an out-patient corridor at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee in to an eye clinic consulting room.