Sexual health service gains national accreditation

The borough’s Sexual Health Improvement Service and Crisis Intervention Team is one of a small number of services in the country to be awarded the ‘You’re Welcome’ quality mark, which certifies that the services are accessible for young people.

The Department of Health’s ‘You’re Welcome’ quality assessment supports services to improve and ensure that they are accessible for young people.

Services are assessed against a number of criteria to test whether they are ‘young person friendly’.

This is a rigorous process and is externally evaluated by a local panel of professionals and young people.

Three high school pupils visited the sexual health service at Penn Street Health Promotion Unit to conduct the assessment.

The group met with managers Cath Hayes and Sara Rowbotham at Penn Street to grill them about the services they offer to young people. The Young Verifiers asked questions about accessibility, confidentiality and consent, continuity of care, convenience, equality, information, patient engagement and facilities. They also asked questions about the range of services on offer and spoke to Emma Hilton as a member of the Crisis Intervention Team to make sure that the team members could support their evidence.

The assessment was supported by a panel of trained verifiers from the PCT, council and Hopwood Hall College who completed an assessment of the documented evidence, as well as visiting Penn Street for an inspection.

Sexual Health Improvement Manager, Cath Hayes, said: “As a service we have worked hard to ensure that we are accessible, approachable and appropriate in our work with young people. Being awarded the quality mark is validation for us, especially as we were evaluated by a panel of peers and most importantly service users”

Joyce Consterdine, Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Community Healthcare, added: “Congratulations are in order to the Sexual Health Improvement and Crisis Intervention Team who achieved the ‘You’re Welcome’ Quality Mark. This is in recognition for making their service young people friendly and they are the first service to achieve this award in Provider Services. Well done to all and it is great to see all their hard work and effort has been recognised in this way.”