Objective: e-Bug is a teaching resource that addresses the UK 5-year National Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that pledges to work with educators and local authorities to ensure young people understand infection prevention and control (IPC) and AMR. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and acceptability of the e-Bug face-to-face train-the-trainer intervention with school and community educators. Design: Service evaluation of an educational intervention via surveys. Setting: Workshops were organised by Public Health England (PHE) and collaborators in seven regions of the UK during 2018–2019. Method: Pre- and post-intervention surveys measured satisfaction with training, knowledge of IPC and AMR, and confidence to teach others. Statistical analyses included multilevel and ordinal logistic regression models to measure change in educator knowledge and confidence. Results: In all, 262 educators participated: primary (46%), secondary (17%), college (2%), healthcare (29%) and community (7%). Educators had high pre-intervention knowledge of topics, with significant improvement ( p < .05) in confidence to teach all topics and some significant IPC knowledge improvement, post-intervention. There was strong evidence for a difference in confidence change between educator types, with primary educators improving the most. Ninety-five percent of educators rated the train-the-trainer workshop positively, valued the interactive workshops and felt confident to use the resources. Conclusion: Confident and knowledgeable educators, achieved via e-Bug train-the-trainer workshops, will enhance education of IPC and AMR topics in schools and communities, and therefore support the UK 5-year AMR action plan. The intervention will be monitored with long-term follow-up surveys to explore how training has been disseminated and to evaluate long-term benefits.

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ObjectiveIn June 2020, as COVID-19 lockdown measures were eased in the UK, this scoping exercise aimed to rapidly identify topics to cover within a children’s online storybook ‘My Back to School Bubble’, designed to support the return to school.MethodsAn email invitation was sent to 71 known contacts within networks across Public Health England, local authorities, health protection teams and contacts within the Department for Education. Following online publication of ‘My Back to School Bubble’, users were asked to provide informal feedback via an online survey to ask about their impressions of the story.ResultsFindings from the 31 responses highlighted that children are likely to hold differing feelings regarding COVID-19, depending on their own temperament and lockdown experiences, including changes in relationships with family and friends. Following the launch of ‘My Back to School Bubble’ e-storybook, 21 users provided feedback via survey. Fourteen respondents (67%) indicated that the storybook was a useful tool for providing support to children, and twelve (57%) reported that the resource helped children understand their own feelings.RecommendationsClear, accurate information about the new school environment should be provided in the context of COVID-19. It is especially important to support children with special educational needs and disabilities, including those with autism. Encouraging children to take ownership of their health and hygiene behaviours, such as handwashing, will help to normalise this and prevent the spread of infection. Lessons learnt from the development of ‘My Back to School Bubble’ online storybook suggest the clarity of imagery could be improved to better support children with autism. Future work should focus on longitudinal and qualitative research. This should include the long-term effects of the pandemic on children’s development and education, effects on mental health and resilience, peer socialisation, and ability to cope with life-changing events.

The SafeConsume educational suite was designed to improve knowledge about undertaking safer food practices and avoiding food-borne illnesses among young people. The resources were designed to support educators and members of the community who teach young people (aged 11–18 years) and include lesson plans and supporting teacher training resources. To assess the efficacy and suitability of the resources, an evaluation of the central lesson, the ‘user journey’, was conducted within four European countries. The mixed-methods evaluation included the following elements: a pre- and post-scenario-based questionnaire, a satisfaction questionnaire, focus groups with students; and interviews with teachers. Data from the scenario-based questionnaires were analysed using a mixed effects normal linear regression model. Qualitative data were thematically analysed, and the main themes were discussed. A total of 171 students and 9 educators took part from schools based in Portugal, Hungary, France and England. The results indicated a significant improvement in students’ knowledge and understanding of appropriate food hygiene practices overall, although this varied among countries. The resources were found to be well-suited to help teachers deliver the lesson, being considered by teachers to be both informative and flexible. Minor alternations were suggested, including alterations to lesson delivery or breaking the lesson into smaller sections, and increasing the lesson’s interactivity.