Skilled for Health
Skilled for Health (SfH) is the national programme that combines essential skills with health improvement. It aims to address both the low skills and health inequalities prevalent within traditionally disadvantaged communities.
It has long been acknowledged that individuals and communities with low skills are often those that suffer the most social inequalities, and that have the most difficult challenges in managing their own health and in accessing health services for themselves and their families. They also face major challenges in accessing employment opportunities, and in being able to manage the multiple aspects of daily life.
This programme uses an integrated approach to add to our understanding of how these issues can be addressed. This approach is reflected in the use of an innovative national partnership to run the programme, consisting of the Department of Health (DH), the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the learning and health charity ContinYou, which has overseen SfH since its inception. The overall aims of SfH are as follows:
- To contribute to reducing health inequalities by improving health among those communities that demonstrate the worst health outcomes.
- To enhance the ability of individuals within those communities to make informed decisions about health and well-being in a variety of different settings.
- To use health improvement topics that embed Skills for Life learning as an incentive to engage and recruit individuals who do not traditionally participate in adult learning initiatives, with a view to supporting them to progressing into other learning opportunities – including, where appropriate, a Skills for Life qualification-based outcome.
Download more information about phase two of the project (Word file, 123 KB).
Read more about our health improvement work (PDF, 35KB)
