East Renfrewshire project wins sexual health award

A SEXUAL health service for youngsters has scooped a national award.‘The Place’ has won the ‘Creative Partnership’ category at the WISH (Wellbeing in Sexual Health) national conference, which focuses on wellbeing and sexual health.

Based in East Renfrewshire, the service is a partnership project run with groups from the Community Health and Care partnership, which brings council social work and local NHS services together, the council’s young person services and Sandyford East Renfrewshire, which is a sexual health service.

The creative partnership award category highlights projects within Scotland which work effectively to promote sexual health in Scotland on a partnership basis.

Councillor Douglas Yates, East Renfrewshire’s convener for health and social care, said: “This is an outstanding achievement for an outstanding service.

“The youth health service has been very successful and in the past two years has had more than 2,000 young people using the project.

“The partnership award is particularly important because it’s by working across services that our public services can deliver real results for our residents and communities.”

According to bosses, East Renfrewshire’s youth health service has the highest success rates in Glasgow and the Clyde Valley of young people giving up smoking.

The youth health service is run weekly in Barrhead and Clarkston health centres.

Meanwhile, national inspectors have given out top marks to community learning services in East Renfrewshire.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) examined youth work, community and family learning, volunteering and further education colleges.

They gave the learning community one excellent, three very goods and one good in their evaluation.

Community services convener, Councillor Mary Montague, said: “This report shows that learning is about more than school, college and university.

“It’s about the whole community and making sure that the right opportunities are in place.”