Bringing health care to schools: first phase evaluation of the Bodyzone Project

Adolescent health service provision is an area of growing concern in the UK, where a number of studies have indicated that young people in their teenage years find accessing formal health services difficult. The Bodyzone Project in Oxfordshire is an innovative programme aimed at bringing health services into schools to ensure greater accessibility. This paper reports on the first phase of a programme of evaluation of the Bodyzone Project, involving a cross‐sectional study. Methods used were both qualitative and quantitative to explore student knowledge, attitudes and behaviours with regards to health issues, health services and the Bodyzone service. The results of the study indicate that Bodyzone is a valued service for those who use it and by schools where it is based. However, there is also a clear indication of unmet health promotion and service need amongst students of those schools, which the current configuration of Bodyzone is not able to address fully.