When your child starts school, their care is transferred from your Health Visitor to one of our School Nurses or Public Health Community Nurses.
If the Health Visitor is working closely with you, this may not happen until that work is finished.
We talk to your child’s reception class teacher; your Health Visitor may speak to us, and we will send you a health questionnaire within their first year, to ask you about your child’s health.
Please return it to us so we can assess whether you need information and support:
- We may contact you by phone to discuss any issues you have identified.
- We may send you some information that may help you.
- We may ask to meet you and your child in school, clinic or in your home to undertake a health assessment.
- We will make sure that you have our contact details in case you want to speak to us.
We offer support about areas such as, behaviour strategies, sleep, toileting, fussy eating, development.
If we feel your child needs further help, we may signpost or refer them to other services.
If neither you, your child’s teacher or your Health Visitor identify any unmet health needs, then we will not need to contact you.
You can however contact us anytime in your child’s school life up to the age of 19 (25 for those with complex needs) if you are worried about something in the future.
We also undertake other universal assessments during your child’s first year at school:
- Vision screening
- Hearing Screening
- National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP)
We also begin our school-aged vaccination programme when your child starts school.
We will attend your school’s events (e.g., coffee mornings) during term time, which gives you the opportunity to ask a member of our team any questions. Watch out for information about either in the school’s newsletter, on their webpage or by text.
ChatHealth
We have introduced an easy way for parents/carers to get in touch with a Halton School Nurse about children aged 5-19, please send us a text message if you are worried about your child or young person’s health and well-being and one of our School Nurses will text you back.
The service is free, anonymous, and confidential.
Text us on 07480 635988 or log onto www.chathealth.nhs.uk and search for your child or young person’s school, or the town in which you live and access us from there.
Child’s voice
Listening to what children say is very important to us, when we see children, we are committed to listening to their views, wishes and experiences, so their voices are heard, and they feel listened to about things that affect them.