Health and Wellbeing Census

Why is the Health and Wellbeing Census important?

  • We want children and young people in Shetland to have their say about what they do and how they feel about their lives. 

  • What they think matters because it will help the council, schools, the health board, local services and community groups to make decisions which can strengthen services and transform the lives of local children and young people. 

  • It is important to plan local services to meet the needs of children and young people as early as possible. Providing early support to them, and their families, can help avoid bigger concerns or problems developing. 

  • Before we can begin improving local services for children and young people, we need to understand their health and wellbeing. The best way to do this is to let them tell us themselves. 

  • We are asking children and young people in Primary 5 to Secondary 6 for their views through a Health and Wellbeing Census which takes place in our schools from February to April 2022. 

  • The Health and Wellbeing Census asks about a wide range of themes and topics including school, physical activity, eating and drinking, social media, emotional and mental wellbeing, friendships and other health behaviours. 

  • Pupils won’t need to prepare – there’s no right or wrong answers. This is not a test. 

  • A child or young person’s confidentiality is paramount, and the census has been designed to ensure this is preserved. Under normal circumstances, a child or young person’s identity will never be disclosed, and any results produced will never allow an individual child or young person to be identified. 

  • Information that would directly enable a child to be identified is held separately from a child’s responses in the Census. The census does not ask for the child to provide their name. Only if a significant child wellbeing concern is identified during the analysis of the children’s responses would a child’s actual identity be sought, as this would be necessary in the best interest of the child or young person. The local authority would follow a set of standard procedures if this were to happen. 

  • Scotland has been undertaking health and wellbeing surveys of children and young people since the 1980s and 1990s. However, these surveys have largely been focussed on providing an overall picture for Scotland, with little or no information being available for use at a local level. A key purpose of this Health and Wellbeing Census is to address this lack of local information that is needed to inform our local services planning and monitoring.