SCHOOL NURSES

School Nurses are specialist community public health nurses (SCPHN – SN), and they lead the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme (HCP).

Their additional training in public health helps them to support children and young people in making healthy lifestyle choices, improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people, and enabling them to reach their full potential and enjoy life.

School Nurses work across education and health, providing a link between school, home, and the community. They work young people aged 12 to 19, up to the age of 25 for people with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and their families. In addition to this, they also work in collaboration with their Health Visiting colleagues to support primary school-age children and the staff within schools.

School Nurses work with families, education settings and communities to improve access, experience, outcomes and reduce health inequalities.

These are the level of services they provide:

Your Community

Describes a range of health services (including GP and community services) for children, young people and families. Health Visitors and School Nurses will be involved in developing and providing these and making sure you know about them.

Universal Services

Your health visiting and school nursing team provides the Healthy Child Programme to ensure a healthy start for every child. This includes promoting good health through education and health checks, and promoting health through immunisations and identifying problems early.

Universal Plus

Provides a swift response from your health visiting and school nursing service when you need specific expert help, which might be identified through a health check, or through providing accessible services. This could include managing long term health issues and additional health needs, reassurance about a health worry, advice on sexual health, and support for emotional wellbeing and mental health.

Universal Partnership Plus

Delivers ongoing support by your health visiting and school nursing service as part of a range of local services, working together and with you/your family to deal with more complex problems over a longer time period.

There are six high impact areas revealed within the HCP where School Nurses aim to make the biggest difference to child health outcomes

Resilience and emotional wellbeing

Keeping safe: Reducing risky behaviours

Improving lifestyles

School Nurses work with children, young people and families to help them in making informed and healthy choices in all aspects of their lives, and to feel that they are supported in making these choices. Their role includes targeted health promotion, which involves delivering specialist health information in assemblies, at parents’ evenings, during transition days, at events hosted by schools/colleges, and to groups of pupils.

Maximising learning and achievement.

School Nurses are well placed within schools and wider community settings to support young carers and play an important role in identifying young carers in the school-aged population, both in and out of education. As the number of adults with long term conditions and mental health issues are increasing, children, young people, and families are taking on more caring responsibilities. School Nurses also have the skills to effectively identify, target and support vulnerable children and young people that require additional or specialist physical, emotional or sexual health support. This aim is to ensure that barriers to learning and achievement are minimised.

Supporting complex and additional health and wellbeing needs

School Nurses have a key role to play in supporting children and young people with complex and additional health and wellbeing needs. In mainstream schools, school nurses support planning and coordination of care, training of staff and help families to navigate services. In addition, support is also offered in many special schools, ensuring all children and young people reach their full potential in life and have their health needs met.

Seamless transition and preparation for adulthood

School Nurses support young people struggling with transition stages in their life. This often involves the school nurse supporting the young person to develop strategies to build their resilience and coping mechanisms, helping them to deal with the challenges ahead. School Nurses also help young people to be ready for adulthood by supporting vulnerable young people, including those who have gender identity issues or who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, young carers or young parents, and other vulnerable groups, where life choices will impact on wider family functioning.

ChatHealth Message Service for young people

ChatHealth is a secure, anonymous and confidential text messaging service for young people 11 to 19 years of age, up to the age of 25 for people with special educational needs and/or disabilities, living or educated within the East Riding.

ChatHealth has experienced public health and specialist public health nurses online waiting to respond to messages from young people. All users need to do is text 07507 332891 to start a conversation.

More about ChatHealth

Young Person – Would you like to speak to one of our School Nurses?

ChatHealth

Parent/Carer – Would you like to speak to one of our School Nurses?

Contact our team

Making Every Contact Count

Every member of our team use the MECC ‘Making Every Contact Count’ approach when working alongside parents to be, children and families. Using this approach ensures that we maximise the collective support we can provide within the local region. Our aim is to fully utilise the multitude of day to day interactions that we have with parents to be, children and families to support positive changes to physical and mental health and wellbeing.

To learn more please click here or to access local directory of Health and Wellbeing support available in the East Riding of Yorkshire, please click the button below:

Learn more