YOUTH-DESIGNED SEXUAL HEALTH SURVEY NOW LIVE
Young People have published a survey calling residents of all ages across Bolton to share their experiences accessing sexual health education and services.
Youth Leads UK’s Bolton Youth Healthcare Transformation Board (YHTB) collaborated with public and sexual health experts to create a borough-wide survey.
More than 1 in 5 young people describe their relationship and sexual health education as ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’, according to a 2021 survey by the Sex Education Forum, while older members of the community feel that the NHS seem ‘reluctant’ to support them (Hinchcliffe et al., 2017).
The YHTB decided that this wasn’t good enough and curated their own sexual health survey to better understand the knowledge of every community member on issues ranging from education to knowing where their nearest clinic can be found.
Alisha Issa, Chair of the Bolton Youth Healthcare Transformation Board, said:
“I believe the future of healthcare has the potential to be even more inclusive and adaptive for young people and their families. We hope that communities appreciate the value that sharing this survey will have on empowering people with confidence when it comes to their sexual health.”
Saeed Atcha MBE DL, CEO of Youth Leads UK, said:
“This lack of engaging education can set young people up for a lifetime of misinformation and shame, leading to poor sexual health practices. We need to get this right and need people from all walks of life to complete our survey to ultimately improve the way Bolton residents access and engage with sexual health education.”
The Board have also written an open letter to education providers across the region to encourage them to share the survey with staff and students.
The survey is now open and accepting responses from Bolton residents of all ages and backgrounds. All responses are collected anonymously and will be used to improve education and service provisions to people across the borough, with the option to be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Amazon voucher.
Data will be used by Bolton’s Public Health Team and Youth Leads UK to make recommendations to The Bolton NHS Foundation Trust on key areas where knowledge and education is missing.
You can complete the survey here.
Notes for charities and public sector organisations:
If you want to share the survey, please use the assets we have created here.
