How do you measure behaviour change?

I’m sure we’ve all pretty much reneged on our New Year’s Resolutions for 2010. I know that the box of Maltesers and family-sized bag of Thai Sweet Chilli crisps I ate on Wednesday didn’t help mine. But how can we really make lasting changes to our behaviour and live a healthier lifestyle?

The Government’s Healthy Schools enhancement model is designed to entrench these behaviours in our young people whilst they’re at school. It helps everyone in the school community to begin to encourage healthy behaviours that impact on young people’s physical, emotional and sexual health.

But what’s really important is measuring the impact of this kind of activity. That’s where we at Yes Agency come in. With our online partners D2 Digital, we’ve developed a number of online surveys which test perception change amongst learners of different ages, teachers, school staff, parents and governors.

We are currently creating a benchmark study and will revisit the changes in twelve months time once the model has had time to permeate through each school’s community and culture. This will help our clients – Healthy Schools Co-ordinators from a range of Local Authorities across the East Midlands and the North, to illustrate the benefits of their hard work.

The only problem is, it’s too late for me I think!

Amanda McDonald