For the past 10 years Skcin have been banging the drum in government, with Public Health, the Department For Education and with all key stakeholders to get sun safety on the PHSE Curriculum as we have long known how essential this is to preventing skin cancer for our future generations! That's why we are super proud and excited to announce that almost a decade on, it's finally happened!
In 2011 Skcin led a political lobby group where we presented a series of comprehensive reports highlighting the true facts about skin cancer in the UK to MPs and policy makers, urging them to take action against a devastating disease that is almost entirely preventable.
Two key actions within these reports called for:
• BRITISH SCHOOLS MUST HAVE AN ENFORCEABLE POLICY ON SUN SAFETY
• SUN SAFETY EDUCATION SHOULD BE MANDATORY IN BRITISH SCHOOLS
Whilst the comprehensive reports revealed many damning facts such as: “Two fifths of UK children sustain sunburn at school while government spends paltry 1 penny per person on public awareness”, action was not forthcoming.
Subsequently, Skcin decided to tackle the issues solo and developed the first ever national educational intervention programme to fill the mammoth void that existed in this arena.
Sun Safe Schools launched in 2013 as the UK’s first ever accreditation programme with the key objective to provide all UK primary schools with quality, accessible free resources to help them implement a robust, sustainable sun safety policy and all the resources they need to enable them to fulfil their commitment to:
• PROTECTION: providing an environment that enables children and staff to stay safe in the sun.
• EDUCATION: learning about sun safety to increase knowledge and influence behaviour.
• COLLABORATION: working with parents, the management structure and the wider community to reinforce awareness about sun safety.
Skcin have successfully worked with with thousands of UK primary schools reaching almost 750,000 children and families to date and have received thousands of fabulous testimonials from schools not just across the UK, but globally.
Now that sun safety education is finally on the PHSE curriculum, we can continue to drive our message and support thousands more schools to fulfill their obligations by providing a robust solution that has been tried, tested and championed by schools for almost 8 years.
Primary schools can register for free at: sunsunsafeschools.co.uk
To access the reports mentioned above visit: https://www.skcin.org/ourWork/skinCancerUK.htm
