The Association of College’s new report – From Treatment to Prevention: How Colleges can build a healthier society – makes a compelling case for positioning lifelong learning at the heart of health strategies. It joins the dots between the recently published NHS 10 Year Plan and the Post-16 Education & Skills White Paper. It’s particularly good to see our colleagues at the Working Men’s College included as an adult learning case study.
The report tends to focus on colleges and “bricks & mortar” – indeed it makes the important point that college buildings and facilities can be health hubs in their own right. The great advantage of community adult learning is that it can happen almost anywhere (including online) and can achieve health benefits wherever it goes.
Take Joanne’s story – with depression and isolated because of caring commitments, she discovered a WEA sustainable cookery course and from there has progressed to becoming a teaching assistant at a local school. From healthy eating to meeting new people and discovering her passion, Joanne’s WEA courses supported her to move forward in life.
Joanne’s story is inspiring as an example of self-motivated early intervention. But even adult learners who enrol post-diagnosis can benefit from adult learning in the community. In our most recent Impact Survey we found that 84% of those learners who reported pre-existing mental health conditions said that taking part in adult learning improved their wellbeing.
Even among some of the WEA’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged learners, 35% said that they made fewer visits to health services because their course has improved their wellbeing. As the AoC report acknowledges, ill health is especially prevalent in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, so any intervention which can support them should be explored.
There are 26 good recommendations in the AoC report but we would point to three which apply even more strongly to adult learning beyond colleges.
First, there is the recommendation for co-funding for preventative health activities especially social prescribing. Social prescribing continues to be the great idea which suffers from under-investment and under-resourcing.
Finding better ways to link our networks of health professionals with our networks of adult learning opportunities (in colleges and in the wider community) is the key. The NHS 10 Year Plan offers a chance to explore this anew. Being able to refer patients to healthy activities, including learning, in their local community will prevent more serious ill health and repeat appointments further down the line.
Secondly, the AoC makes a recommendation to itself to explore more analytical work on preventative approaches in education settings. We have a track record of that through our impact report and would be happy to explore taking our analysis to the next level.
Finally, the report recognises how progress is often driven by key individuals and organisations, committed to turn discussions into actions. At the WEA we are always open to discussions with health professionals, policy makers and other stakeholders who can help realise preventative health programmes at local level. We see the health and wellbeing benefits that our learners report and would love to scale that up.
Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to talk further.
In the meantime, we recommend the Association of Colleges report which can be read in full here.
