Children's Pack
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why has this pack been developed?
- What is the purpose of the hand hygiene Packs?
- Why is frequent hand washing so important?
- What is covered in the pack?
- Which age group is the pack designed for?
- Can I download Handy?
- I have some ideas that I would like to share with other schools/nurseries, how can I do that?
- I've used all the materials in the pack, where can I get more?
- Can I get hard copies of the pack?
- Who has not been sent copies of the pack?
- Will hard copies of hand hygiene packs be issued to schools and nurseries again next year?
- What else is being done to encourage good hand hygiene?
- Who do I contact for further information?
Why has this pack been developed?
This pack has been developed to help children understand the importance of hand hygiene. It was produced in collaboration with:
- Learning and Teaching Scotland
- Health Protection Scotland
- Scottish Government Health Directorate
- Scottish Government Education Directorate
- NHS Health Scotland
What is the purpose of the Hand Hygiene Packs?
Children need to understand why it is important to wash their hands. To do this they need help from their parents, their carers, their teacher or from a member of staff at their nursery. The purpose of the pack is to therefore support those roles and provide practical advice so that children introduce the simple practice of hand washing into everyday life. Encouraging children from an early age to wash their hands will help to ensure that this practice becomes a lifelong habit.
Why is frequent hand washing so important?
Frequent hand washing is one of the single most important things we can do to help to reduce the spread of infections and prevent ill health. For example, good hand hygiene in children will help to prevent the spread of common communicable infections such as colds and tummy bugs. Getting this message out to children will also help to influence their hand washing practices at home as well as at school.
The pack was produced with the help of Learning and Teaching Scotland. The pack contains
- Posters featuring a cartoon character called Handy to encourage regular hand washing.
- Reminder stickers of Handy for placing around toilets and classroom sinks.
- Some ideas to help make hand washing part of the school day and to raise children’s awareness to their hands.
- A fun reward chart that can be filled out when children wash their hands. (This can be photocopied or downloaded and given out to pupils each week.)
- stickers of Handy to reward children for washing their hands – these could be given out at the end of each week
- A cartoon DVD featuring Handy to help explain why, when and how hands should be washed
Which age group is the pack designed for?
The pack has been designed specifically for use by children between the ages of three and six and is supported by materials available from this website.
Yes there is a downloadable image of 'Handy' on this website. This can be printed out at any size you want, so it can be used in lots of different ways. For example, you could use this to make your own reward chart. Or, you could print out a large 'Handy' and put him onto cardboard to act as hand-washing monitor.
I have some ideas that I would like to share with other schools/nurseries, how can I do that?
We are pleased that you want to share your ideas with others. You can share your ideas by logging on to the Discussion Forum of the Learning and Teaching Scotland Early Years website. The web address is www.ltscotland.org.uk/earlyyears.
I’ve used the materials contained in the pack, where can I get more?
All the materials contained in the pack are available for download from this website.
Can I get hard copies of the pack?
No - a limited number of hard copies of the pack was distributed to publicly funded schools and nurseries. All the pack materials are however available for download from this website for everyone to use.
Who has not been sent copies of the pack?
Distribution of the pack was limited to local authority primary schools and partner nurseries. Private primary schools and non-partner nurseries were not included in the distribution but all the materials are available for them to download from this website.
Will hard copies of hand hygiene packs be issued to schools and nurseries again next year?
No - we have no plans to do so. The materials will, however, continue to be made available from this website for the foreseeable future.
What else is being done to encourage good hand hygiene?
The distribution of hand hygiene packs forms part of the wider hand hygiene campaign as well as other initiatives to reduce avoidable infections overseen by the Scottish Government Health Directorates to tackle Healthcare Associated Infections such as MRSA. You may, for example, have seen the TV and newspaper campaign that was launched on 15 January this year and which ran for six weeks. The media campaign will be re-run in January 2008 for a similar period of time.
We have also implemented a campaign aimed at the NHS in Scotland to target good hand hygiene practice at staff, patients and visitors. This part of the campaign includes the development and implementation of a tool to monitor hand hygiene compliance in NHS Boards. An Audit report will be published later this year. Posters and leaflets for NHS Staff and visitors to NHS healthcare environments continue to be refreshed on a regular basis.
Who do I contact for further information?
In the first instance please contact your Local Authority Public Health Officers, details of which are available from this website.
- Download LAPHO Contact Details (12 KB
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