Interested in hosting or contributing to a future School Health Hub?
School Health Hubs
A School Health Hub brings healthcare directly into a school, a place where children, young people and families already feel safe, known and supported. Hubs are a permanent, multi-agency presence within a school, not a drop-in service or an extended school nurse.
The Bradford pilot (2025–2027) is funded by the NHS Charities Together Innovation Challenge Grant, delivered with Better Lives NHS Charity. It has established two hubs — at Dixons Allerton Academy and Oastlers School — each adapting the model to its school community.
Partners in the Pilot
- Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Dixons Academies Trust
- Exceed Academies Trust (Oastlers School)
- Centre for Applied Education Research (Born in Bradford)
- West Yorkshire Citizens
- Education Alliance for Life Chances
What Makes a School Health Hub Different?
A School Health Hub is not a single person or a single service. It is a whole team of school staff, NHS professionals, community partners, young people and families working together to improve health and wellbeing for children and their families in and around a school. Each hub has:
A dedicated physical space
A welcoming, community‑facing room inside the school where families can access support without navigating complex systems or multiple referral routes.
A coordinated team
A named NHS professional, school colleagues, and wider partners working side‑by‑side, sharing information, solving problems together and responding quickly to need.
A shared understanding of the community
Using high‑quality local data, lived experience and school insight to target interventions where they will have the greatest impact.
Joined‑up ways of working
Shared data agreements, shared language, shared decision‑making — all designed to remove barriers and make support easier to access.
A relational approach
Trust, listening and co‑design with families are at the heart of the model.
Why School Health Hubs matter
Our Bradford pilot has shown that School Health Hubs:
- Reduce health inequalities
- Improve access to NHS and community services
- Strengthen safeguarding
- Enable earlier identification of SEND and health needs
- Reduce fragmentation between education, CAMHS, paediatrics, primary care and family support
- Improve attendance, wellbeing and readiness to learn
“The hub has brought NHS services, local organisations and community agencies directly into the school, making support far more accessible than usual.”
What we have achieved in Year 1
At the end of the first year, both hubs are operating effectively across two very different school settings. Between them they have:
300+
People engaged overall
238
Young people supported through hub interventions, Sept–Mar
13→59%
Vaccination consent rise at Dixons Allerton Academy
100%
Toothbrushing uptake among primary-age children at Dixons Allerton (46 children)
- 171 people accessed the hubs in January–March 2026 alone, more than the entire previous period combined
- Emotional Wellbeing Day reached 117 young people, 12 parents and 14 practitioners, with 20 onward referrals to Mental Health Support Teams
- Developed a Multiple Vulnerabilities Register jointly across the school, Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust and Bradford Children and Families Trust
- New youth clubs set up at both schools, focused on girls at risk of social isolation and neurodivergent learners
- Engaged 28 different sets of practitioners across both schools, including 10 voluntary and community sector organisations, 5 NHS teams and 3 university research teams
Expanding School Health Hubs across Bradford
EALC’s mission is clear: to scale School Health Hubs so that more children and families across Bradford can access healthcare in a place they trust. EALC’s ambition is to:
Grow a District-Wide Network
Building on the success at Dixons Allerton Academy and Oastlers School, support more schools to adopt the model — especially those serving communities with high health inequality.
Create a community of the willing
Scaling requires schools, NHS teams, community organisations, research partners and families ready to work differently and commit to a relational, evidence-informed approach.
Align with Bradford’s major system reforms
School Health Hubs directly support the SEND One Plan, Family Help transformation and the NHS neighbourhood health framework.
Secure sustainable investment
The pilot has shown what’s possible with targeted funding. Expansion needs long-term commitment from NHS commissioners, education partners and system leaders.
Offer Flexible Models
Single-school hubs, locality-based hubs, and multi-academy trust hubs — each retaining the core features while adapting to local need.
Read the interim report
Our Year 1 interim report sets out what we’ve learned from the first year of the pilot, what the model looks like in practice, and how it could be scaled across Bradford and beyond.
- What worked, what didn't, and why — across two very different school settings
- The full Year 1 data: engagement, referrals, vaccination uptake and more
- A practical model for scaling School Health Hubs district-wide
Find out more
For more information about the School Health Hubs pilot, contact:
Kathryn Loftus: ka*****@*********************************rg.uk
Phil Sage: ph**@*********************************rg.uk
Interested in hosting or contributing to a future School Health Hub?
Whether you’re a school, an NHS team, a voluntary sector organisation, or a research partner, register your interest in being part of the next phase of School Health Hubs.