SBL Academy will be offering pupils in Years 9 to 13 confidential access to South Gloucestershire Council Public Health and Wellbeing Division’s free condom distribution scheme called C.Card. This forms part of our wider commitment to safeguarding the welfare and promoting the wellbeing of pupils.

In addition to providing free condoms, the scheme is designed to provide confidential advice, support and information on; consent, the law, healthy relationships, contraception and sexual health. This very much builds on the Academy’s existing commitment to the delivery of high quality relationships and sex education as part of our PSHE curriculum.

Staff providing the service have received specialist training, with follow-up support, to enable them to offer the scheme. Any student wishing to access the scheme will first need to be assessed against the Fraser Guidelines and Bichard Checklist to ensure their suitability. This would be the same process used by any Doctor or Nurse providing medical advice or treatment to someone under 16.

Free condom distribution schemes have existed nationally for 30 years, with South Gloucestershire Council’s Public Health and Wellbeing Division operating it since its inception in 2013. The Public Health and Wellbeing Division have designed their C.Card scheme to fit with the national guidance published by Public Health England (2015) and the National Institute for Care and Health Excellence (2017).

SBL Academy are proud to be joining the existing South Gloucestershire schools providing the scheme via their internal support staff. The scheme is already available to our students through our weekly Public Health Nurse drop-in service, but having our own, highly skilled support staff trained will increase our capacity to safeguard the wellbeing and welfare of more of SBL Academy’s pupils.

If you have any questions about the provision of the scheme at SBL please do not hesitate to make contact with Mr G Lyle, Academy Safeguarding Lead.