ABSTRACT
The development of the Wessex Healthy Schools Award (WHSA) scheme in the early 1990s was underpinned by an alliance between health and education specialists that had already been established in the county of Hampshire in the UK. Educationists provided ‘inside’ knowledge about schools and working with teachers and health promotion officers (HPOs), some of whom had teaching backgrounds, were able to contribute specialist health information, resources and the different perspective that comes from someone working in an outside agency. The award was administered by the Wessex Institute for Health Research and Development, which is part of the University of Southampton.
