Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Objectives Asthma is the most common chronic condition in children, affecting 2–3 in every primary school class.1 Asthma disproportionately affects children living in poverty due to air pollution, poor housing, and lack of green space.2 The North West is one of the most deprived areas and our locality has markedly higher asthma rates than the rest of England.3 As such there is a national1 and regional4 drive to reduce asthma. Asthma Friendly Schools (AFS's) are schools which meet standards of safe practice (e.g. an asthma register and named asthma champion). In London this has been shown to reduce A+E attendances5 when conducted in conjunction with other public health measures.6 Methods Data was collected in 2021/22 on A+E attendances/admissions in a large Foundation Trust, these were linked to patient postcodes. Schools in areas with high attendance rates were approached for inclusion in an AFS pilot. The pilot started in November 2022 and runs until Spring 2024, led by an asthma nurse specialist. The aim of the pilot is to implement AFS criteria in the vulnerable schools, and to co-produce solutions with pupils, alongside a peer mentorship programme. Results Initially 7 schools were recruited into the AFS pilot – 6 primary and 1 secondary. These were all in areas of deprivation (Indices of Multiple Deprivation 1–2). One school had nearly 50% of pupils diagnosed with asthma. Over the last year, one school has dropped out and two others have joined. All schools are making good progress meeting AFS criteria. There has been extensive role out of training7 with more than 80% of staff in one school trained. There have also been hundreds of pupils trained in person, with community awareness events held on World Asthma Day and school fetes. Each school has different challenges, whether that is mold in the building, traffic congestion outside or lack of green space. As such a new CYP Healthy Lungs working group has been set up around AFS to bring together highways/social care/education and health professionals. Conclusion The AFS pilot is having a big impact on the schools it works in – with increasing confidence and knowledge about asthma. It is also a catalyst for cross sector working, to improve lung health for children and young people in our locality. The challenge is demonstrating a reduction in A+E attendances in the timeframe of the pilot, but we hope to demonstrate an objective improvement in school absence through different reporting mechanisms. Going forwards we aim to roll out the pilot across the region. References National Bundle of Care for Children and Young People With Asthma, NHS, 2021. Breathing Unequal, Asthma + Lung UK, 2023. Public Health profiles, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, 2023. Michael Marmot, et al. Building Back Fairer for Greater Manchester, 2021. Asthma Friendly Schools, Transformation Partners in Health and Care, 2023. Our project cut unplanned asthma admissions by 22%, Local Government Chronicle, 2021. National Asthma Capability Framework, e-learning for healthcare, 2023.
Willson et al. (Tue,) studied this question.