The School Nursing Service offer to promote successful outcomes for the children, young people and families of Bradford by leading the Healthy
Child Programme: 5-19 and the 6 school age years high impact areas:
- supporting resilience and wellbeing
- improving health behaviours and reducing risk taking
- supporting healthy lifestyles
- supporting vulnerable young people and improving health inequalities
- supporting complex and additional health and wellbeing needs and
- promoting self-care and improving health literacy
Further information about the team
Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN) School Nurses, along with health visitors, are trained specialist community public health nurses (SCPHN) who are qualified nurses or midwives that have done further training about public health
at an advanced level.
They lead the team to ensure that services are delivered efficiently and effectively. They work with school-aged children and young people and their families to improve health and wellbeing outcomes and reduce inequalities and vulnerabilities.
School nurses lead on delivering the Healthy Child Programme and are essential in ensuring every child has the best start in life. Their role is to identify health needs, determine risk and protective factors and identify early intervention to prevent
issues escalating. This work is alongside key government priorities such as reducing child health inequalities, promoting and supporting emotional wellbeing and mental health and encouraging healthy weight.
Student Specialist Community Public Health Nurses are registered nurses or midwifes who undertake SCPHN programmes. They are sponsored by BDCFT to train and develop to become a SCPHN.They have projects to complete as part of training, which
may involve professional or service user involvement.
Staff Nurses are qualified nurses, some of whom hold additional specialist nursing qualifications. Staff nurses work alongside the school nurses and wider skill mix team to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for children and families
in the community. They contribute to the universal service offer and integrated working through assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation. They provide excellent professional, skilled and effective person-centred, evidence-based nursing care.
Community Nursery Nurses have experience in education and/or the health environment with related skills and qualifications. They work in partnership with both the School Nurse and Health Visiting Teams to deliver the Healthy Child Programme
and facilitate a smooth transition of children who are commencing school or in the early stages of primary school. They also deliver some health promotion activities within the community. If further support is needed for a child or family they can signpost
to a nurse within the team or can sometimes refer to other agencies for specialist help.
School Nurse Support Workers (SNSW's) are currently in trial phase 3 for the 24-25 academic year. Practitioners are exclusively employed by BDCFT but are usually based within their named schools or educational provisions during the school
terms. This is a developing role and offers may differ across educational establishments. The core offer includes 1:1 support, small group work, class sessions, whole year assemblies and coffee morning sessions for parents and carers. Their role is strengthen
relationships between young people, parents/ carers, health services and schools by supporting them to navigate health systems and achieve optimum health, development and wellbeing. The team may also contribute to the delivery of School Nurse Team work in
the school holidays.
The Screening Team are professionals with childcare and/or education experience, skills and qualifications. They complete the National Childhood Measurement Programme (NCMP) screening by checking height, weight and hearing for children in
Reception (age 4-5) and height and weight for children in Year 6 (age 10-11). They can signpost you to the nurses and school nurses within the team if some health advice or support is required.
The Public Health Children's Duty Team are a mixed skilled team of 0-19 professionals including School Nurses, Health Visitors, Staff Nurses and a Nursery Nurse. They are the professionals who respond to calls, emails and Chat Health Messages
to both the School Nursing and Health Visiting Service.
Location - The School Nurse Team remains as a district-wide team. We will keep you updated on any developments via Bradford Schools Online or from our commissioners in Public Health.
School Nurse Toolkits and Academic Calenders are designed to guide and demonstrate the role of the School Nurse Service and services offered in more detail. These should be discussed at the beginning of each academic year between the School
Nurse Team and each individual school or educational provision.
1:1 Support where needed and in agreement with a child or young person and their parents or carers (depending on their age) can be offered. The team will complete an initial health assessment and then make an action plan of care which may
include care packages, signposting to specialist services or completing referrals. A brief summary or update should be provided once this work is complete to the referrer.
Here is our referral form and referral
guidance. *Referrals should continue to be sent to admin services as per the guidance and not the email address at the bottom of the page.
Please note, we may not be able to offer assessment or support if another health or specialist service is working with a child or young person- however, we welcome any queries via our Duty Team.
NCMP and Hearing screening - The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) is a nationally mandated public health programme delivered by the Screening Team. The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) measures the height and weight
of children in Reception class (aged 4 to 5) and year 6 (aged 10 to 11), to assess overweight and obesity levels in children within primary schools. It provides the data for the child excess weight indicators in the Public Health Outcomes Framework. It is
estimated that overweight and obesity-related conditions across the UK are costing the NHS £6.1 billion each year.
Children in reception year will also have a hearing test conducted at school. The test is delivered by the Screening Team. Dependant on the result, the team may retest or refer to specialist service as necessary.
Schools will be contacted by the team and asked to distribute links the e-consent facility for parents. Dates will be arranged to complete the screening in school. You can contact the team with any further queries via our advice line at the bottom of the
page.
Health Promotion - The team offer a variety of health promotion sessions to all schools. Further information can be found in the School Nurse Toolkits.
Please contact on 01274 221203 to book a session or share ideas and evidence to support potential future offers.
Dropin Clinics provide basic healthcare advice and support with the aim to encourage individuals to make informed choices and decisions regarding physical, emotional and sexual health.
All high schools and post 16 provisions can book monthly clinics for pupils. These can be offered as a general clinic or as an enhanced clinic (additionally providing the C-Card Scheme). Please contact the team to arrange these if your school need to arrange
these.
Parent and carer dropin clinics are held within the community and across the district on a monthly basis. Details about these can be found via Support
from the school nurse | Bradford Families and Young Persons.
School Readiness Clinics are a new initiative designed to provide support at the earliest opprtunity to ensure children are school ready and referral to services can be completed in a timely manner. The team work closely with the Health
Visiting Team after the 2.5 year development review to ensure parents and carers can recieve support prior to their child starting school.
Chat Health is a confidential texting service that is available to all young people living or educated in the Bradford and Airedale district. This is available Monday to Friday all year round (excluding bank holidays) 9-4.30pm. We encourage
all schools to advertise this, particularly in places such as toilet cubicles. Please note that we support all school mobile phone policies.
School Events - The team are keen to be a part of school events, such as coffee mornings, parents evenings and transition days! Your school may also have other events planned where you think it would be useful to have a member of the team
present. Please contact the team to discuss this further. Note that reasonable notice will be required for us to attend any events.
SEND - The team work alongside BDCFT Specilaist SEND practitioners to ensure a SEND graduated response is provided to families. They are able to observe the development, physical, cognitive and behavioural indicators of school age children
during their contacts. They will provide advice and support to children, young people and parents or carers, ensuring appropriate referrals are made when, or if, required.
BDCFT Children's Services Partners:
The team are part of BDCFT Public Health Nursing Children’s Services. They deliver and implement work alongside the following services to provide a public health service to children, young people and families. Please see their contact details below:
- Health Visiting Team (0-5): 01274 221 223
- Vulnerable Children's Information & Safeguarding Teams: 01274 221203
- Children in Care/ Care Leavers and Youth Justice Team: 01274 221002 or by emailing
cic@bdct.nhs.uk
- Special Needs School Nursing and Learning Disabilities Team: 01274 251440
- Oral Health Improvement Team: Oral Health Improvement - Bradford and Airedale - BDCT
- School Immunisation Team: 01274 221269
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS): Fieldhead in Bradford- 01274 723 241/ Hillbrook in Keighley- 01525 661 531
- Mental Health Support Team (MHST): Mental Health Support team - BDCT
Contact the team:
Email: PublicHealthNursingChildrensDutyTeam@bdct.onmicrosoft.com (professionals only)
