Overview of findings

The Skin Care Campaign, in collaboration with the Guide Dogs for the Blind (Shades for a Day), constructed a questionnaire asking about the teaching of sun awareness to children. The total number of respondents was 116 from the 3000 distributed.

•  Of the 116 responders the largest group to respond were primary schools, accounting for    57% of returned surveys. The second largest was secondary schools at 16%. However the response sources were very varied, with nursery schools, special schools and colleges all participating.

• Only 42% of the establishments, ran a sun awareness campaign

• 97% said they would be interested in receiving support materials to facilitate lessons. Of the three establishments that were not interested, one was a nursery school which considered the children too young to understand the information; one was a special educational needs school that said the children they taught would not understand the concept of sun safety; and one secondary school believed the curriculum too full to consider incorporating sun awareness.

•  73% of those who responded did not have a shaded area for the summer months, many   (25%) were interested in planning more shade, however 5% said that they had an issue with funding for such an initiative.

•  Of the establishments that did have a sun awareness campaign, sun awareness appeared to be taught frequently in assemblies or as part of the Personal and Social Health Education (PSHE) curriculum. 1

• The majority (68%), of the establishments did not have one particular member of staff responsible for sun awareness.

•  35% of the members of staff who were the nominated sun awareness officer were the PSHE coordinators.

•  72%of those who responded did not obtain any form of support materials sponsored by charities or manufacturers.   The remaining (28%) received information packs from: Lloyds Pharmacy, Laboratoire Garnier, Ambre Solaire, local health authorities and Nivea.   Information packs received from Nivea were the most frequent (5 out of the 13).

• 93% of those who received information packs used them in their teaching of sun awareness. The reason cited where materials were not used was not being able to incorporate the material into the already packed national curriculum.

•  None of those responding had a policy on commercial partner sponsorship.

•  The majority (63%) of establishments that specified a time of year appropriate for receiving information packs requested information at Spring / Easter in preparation for the summer. However a considerable number (18%) requested information at the start of the academic year, August and September.

Guide Dogs for The Blind is the leading charity providing guide dogs, mobility and rehabilitation services that enable blind and partially sighted people to lead the fullest and most independent lives possible.

Since 1990 Guide Dogs' Ophthalmic Research Grants Programme has funded 105 research projects totalling about £8.6 million. It is anticipated that a further £2.9 million will have been contributed by 2006.

The Skin Care Campaign is an umbrella organisation representing the interests of all people with skin diseases in the UK .   It campaigns to government, both directly and through the Associate Parliamentary Group on Skin, to obtain improvements in dermatology services.   It works with health professionals and the public to increase peoples’ awareness and understanding of skin diseases, their prevention and treatment and it provides information and advice directly to the public through a series of Skin Information Days run throughout the UK .