Pregnant teenagers who give up smoking and pupils who pick the healthy option on the school meals menu are to receive rewards including free driving lessons and discounts on cinema tickets.
A national scheme that gives incentives to young people to participate in activities which will benefit them and their communities was launched at Craigie High School in Dundee on Tuesday.
Young Scot Rewards, supported by the Scottish Government and by NHS Tayside and Dundee City Council, encourages participants aged 11 to 26 to earn points by participating in activities such as eating healthily, volunteering, sports and giving up smoking.
The first of its kind in Europe, the scheme enables young people to collect points for participating in activities that contribute to their own personal, social or educational development, improve their health or wellbeing and engage them as active citizens while benefiting other people, communities or the environment.
Launching the scheme in Tayside, NHS Tayside chairman Sandy Watson said, ”Young Scot have to be congratulated on this scheme. From an NHS Tayside perspective, health is a crucial dimension to Young Scot Rewards. It’s inconceivable to have a national scheme which does not acknowledge the potential of rewards as a means of helping young people to better health.”
The points are collected through the Young Scot National Entitlement Card (NEC) which can then be redeemed against rewards such as discounts on days out, buy one get one free on driving lessons and discounted cinema tickets, clothing and gym memberships.
Rewards are ”unlocked” based on the number of points collected by the card holder. The more points they have, the better the rewards they will be entitled to. In the future, participants will also be able to collect points using a mobile phone app.
There are 380,000 Young Scot NEC cardholders across Scotland. In Dundee, 95% of school pupils have a card, as do two thirds of the young people throughout the city.
Participants can earn points by giving up smoking through NHS Tayside’s quit4u and Give It Up For Baby schemes and by eating a healthy school meal.
NHS Tayside deputy director for public health Paul Ballard said: ”This scheme supports NHS Tayside’s drive to work jointly with young people to find ways to help them to be healthy.”
To find out more and to apply for an entitlement card, visit youngscot.org.