Dr Honor Young discusses trialling SaFE, a further education-based intervention designed to promote sexual health and prevent dating and relationship violence.
Why SaFE matters
Improving sexual health and reducing dating and relationship violence among young people is a critical public health priority. The SaFE intervention addresses these issues in Further Education (FE) settings by offering free onsite sexual health and relationship services, promoting these services, and training FE staff to support sexual health and recognise and respond to cases of dating and relationship violence and sexual harassment.
Can SaFE thrive in FE settings?
The main research question was whether it is possible to implement the SaFE intervention in Further Education (FE) settings. This meant evaluating how acceptable the intervention and study methods were to students, staff, and other stakeholders.
Crafting and testing SaFE
To refine and test the SaFE intervention, we worked closely with FE students, FE staff, policymakers, academics, and the DECIPHer young people’s advisory group (ALPHA). We tailored existing publicity and staff training materials to fit the FE context. We then conducted a pilot study in eight FE settings (including a combination of The School Health Research Network (SHRN) member Sixth forms, and community colleges) across England and Wales. Six of these settings were randomly chosen to receive the SaFE intervention, while two served as control settings. We surveyed students at the start of the study and again 12 months later. We also interviewed staff, students, and sexual health nurses, and observed how the intervention was delivered.
What we discovered
- Participation and Engagement: All FE settings agreed to participate and remained in the study. Overall, 56.3% of students invited to take part in the survey did so. Initial survey participation was 60.7%, and 51.9% at the 12-month follow-up. This was slightly below the target of 60% for both time points.
- Service Visibility and Utilisation: Publicity for the onsite sexual health service was visible in all settings. Nurses attended over 80% of the onsite sexual health service sessions, and 137 staff members received training.
- Student Concerns: Approximately a quarter of students expressed concerns about providing permission to access and link their health records.
SaFE’s success, future directions and SHRN
The SaFE intervention was successfully implemented and positively received by FE students, FE staff, and nurses. However, they felt that it needed more time to become fully integrated into FE settings.
Increasing student survey completion rates is crucial for a future study, as well as finding the right location within an FE setting to house an onsite sexual health service. A larger study is necessary to determine if SaFE can effectively improve sexual health and reduce dating and relationship violence and sexual harassment.
The success of SaFE also has implications for SHRN as it:
- Enhances SHRN’s Credibility and Reputation: Demonstrating the feasibility and acceptability of the SaFE intervention boosts SHRN’s standing in public health and education. This success can also attract more funding for larger research projects.
- Advocacy for integration: These positive findings, and the results from a full-scale effectiveness trial of the SaFE intervention, could help SHRN advocate for similar interventions in schools, potentially leading to widespread improvements in sexual health and reductions in relationship violence and sexual harassment among young people. SHRN involves some post-16 learners where schools have sixth forms. Therefore, if the findings from a full-scale trial are positive, they can also help advocate for these interventions in sixth forms.
Further, SHRN has a significant scope for enhancing FE infrastructure. By integrating SHRN’s robust data collection and analysis capabilities, FE institutions can better understand and address the health and wellbeing needs of their students. This integration can lead to more informed policymaking, improved student support services, and a healthier educational environment overall.
- Fostering New Partnerships: Successfully implementing a pilot of the SaFE intervention has created new partnerships with policymakers, sixth form and college educational institutions, and other stakeholders interested in promoting health and well-being in all educational contexts.
Overall, this pilot trial’s success significantly bolsters SHRN’s efforts to improve young people’s health and well-being through evidence-based interventions.
This blog was first published on the SHRN website: https://www.shrn.org.uk/transforming-sexual-health-and-relationships-in-further-education-insights-from-the-safe-pilot-trial/
To read about the study, click here.
For further information, please email Honor: youngh6@cardiff.ac.uk.
About the Author
I am a Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences and DECIPHer. I also serve as the International Director for SHRN and co-investigate major grants like the Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health and Wales Applied Virology Unit (WAVU). As a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) and Registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC), my research focuses on health psychology and public health. I am particularly interested in the social determinants of young people’s health, interventions in educational settings, and issues like sexual health, relationship violence, and gender-based violence among youth. I am also dedicated to promoting youth participation in research. For more information, click here.
