Health & Education Collaboration
EALC leads the collaboration between health and education across Bradford. We aim to build the infrastructure, relationships and shared ways of working that allow NHS services, schools, families and community partners to function as one connected system.
School Health Hubs
Healthcare in a place children and families trust
A School Health Hub brings healthcare directly into a school – a place where children, young people and families already feel safe, known and supported.
School Health Hubs are a permanent, multi‑agency presence within a school, not a drop‑in service or an extended school nurse. They bring together:
- NHS health professionals
- School staff
- Family help and SEND partners
- Community organisations
- Children, young people and families themselves
All working as one coordinated team to make very local decisions about what works best.
What makes a School Health Hub different?
School Health Hubs are not simply co‑located services. They are a shared system function built around:
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
Families have described the hubs as empowering and accessible. One parent said,
“The hub has brought NHS services, local organisations and community agencies directly into the school, making support far more accessible than usual.”
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 of School Health Hubs
Building on the success at Dixons Allerton Academy and Oastlers School, EALC aims to support more schools to adopt the model — especially those serving communities with high levels of health inequality.
Create a community of the willing
Scaling requires schools, NHS teams, community organisations, research partners and families who are ready to work differently, share learning 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 — turning national priorities into a single, local delivery model.
Secure sustainable investment
The pilot has shown what is possible with targeted funding. Expansion will require long‑term commitment from NHS commissioners, education partners and system leaders.
Offer flexible models for different contexts
EALC is developing
- Single‑school hubs
- Locality‑based hubs
- Multi‑academy trust hubs
Each model retains the core features — physical space, coordinated team, shared understanding, joint working — while adapting to local need.
Our Vision
EALC believes that every child should be able to access the healthcare they need in a place they trust. School Health Hubs make that possible.
They are more than a project — they are a new way of working across education, health and community partners. They bring prevention, early intervention and family‑centred support into the heart of school life.
And they are already changing lives.