School Nurses are public health nurses who lead and deliver the Healthy Child Programme for school-aged children and young people.
Contact your local School Nurse:
The community based teams work in partnership with school-aged children, young people and their families to address health needs and to promote health and wellbeing with a focus on early help and support.
The local teams consist of a range of professionals including School Nurses, Community Nurses, Nursery Nurses, School Nurse assistants and School Health clerical officers.
Each primary and secondary school has a named School Nurse who is supported by their team to promote health and emotional wellbeing in schools and in the community by:
- Being available to address, in confidence, any concerns about a child or young person’s health
- Providing health advice to help children and young people to make positive health choices
- Developing School health Plans with each school to focus practice on need.
- Assessing children starting primary school after their care is transferred from the Health Visitor
- Assessing the health of year 6 pupils before they transfer to high school
- Offering young people an opportunity to discuss health issues confidentially at school based or community based drop ins
- Supporting young people who have particular medical needs and providing training for education staff to help manage these needs
- Developing care plans to support pupils with medical needs including allergy
- Delivering classroom-based health education
- Delivering immunisation programmes in primary and secondary schools and the community
- Delivering immunisation programmes in school and the community
- Working with and referring to other professionals
- Working with other agencies to safeguard and protect young people
- Delivering the national child measurement programme
- Providing health information, advice and support.
Halton 0-19 Service Update in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic
We have taken advice from the Government, NHS England and Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust which means we are temporarily providing a reduced service. Unfortunately we have therefore had to temporarily suspend all our clinics, developmental reviews, adolescent ‘Drop In’s, group sessions and screening.
Home visits with your Health Visitor, Family Nurse and School Nurse will be undertaken if necessary as long as everyone in the family is well. They will however telephone you before the visit to check that you and every member of your household are free from Covid-19 symptoms. Please also be aware that the member of staff may be wearing personal protective equipment for your safety and that of our staff.
All other contacts will be completed by telephone where possible and we have also introduced two dedicated phone lines for you to ask for advice and support.
01928 593056 for Runcorn clients
0151 495 5200 for Widnes clients
If you are currently supported by one of our Family Nurses and you need to speak to them, we would ask you to contact them as normal on their mobile phone.
We have also set up dedicated email addresses to enable you to contact your 0-19 Teams so we can provide advice and support:
Please also access our Facebook page and our Twitter feed for regular health and well-being information and updates.
Confidentiality and consent
Young people are encouraged to talk with their parents/carers about health issues that are troubling them.
Although School Nurses offer a confidential service to young people, there are times when the School Nurse may need to share information. Depending on their age and level of understanding, young people may be able to give their own consent to talk with a health professional.
Who can access the service?
School aged children and young people and their parents/carers, teachers, Health Visitors, GPs, social workers, other community health professionals, hospitals and support services.
How can people access the service?
The service is offered to school-aged children and young people and operates an open referral system.
Referrals include self-referrals and referrals made by parents/carers, schools, health professionals, social care and children’s services.
Your child or young person’s school will be able to provide you with your School Nurse’s name, clinic base and telephone number or follow one of the links below to find your child’s School Nursing team’s details.
The Nasal Flu Vaccine
Flu can be a very unpleasant illness in children. Annual immunisation provides important protection to individual children and also reduces the spread of flu to their families and the wider community.
To be effective, vaccinations need to be given between October and December as this is before flu tends to circulate.
The flu virus can change year on year and therefore vaccines are made each year to provide protection against the flu viruses that are predicted to circulate, and which is why the vaccine needs to be given on an annual basis.
The vaccine is currently being offered to reception and year 1, 2, 3 and 4 children within primary schools.
Vaccinations at secondary school
Bridgewater School Nursing teams offer vaccinations to all young people of primary and secondary age.
HPV
All girls and boys aged 12-13 are are offered HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccination that protects against some cervical cancers. The vaccination is routinely offered in secondary schools and consists of two injections.
The Immunisation team will send you a letter, a consent form for you to sign and a leaflet for your information in early September. This will explain more about the programme and tell you where to return the signed consent form.
View the patient information leaflet.
Assemblies are routinely held in every secondary school prior to the HPV vaccinations starting; please take the opportunity to view the presentation below:
Leaflets
Immunisations
Patient information leaflets for the Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio and the Meningitis ACWY vaccines can be accessed via the links below:
Our local offer
View our School Nursing local offer for children.
Service feedback
“Fantastic Service, free stickers, lovely staff, 10/10, would come again’”
(year 10 pupil)
“The School Nurse has been really helpful with my son; she is brilliant in every way” (parent)
“All the aims of the session were met; due to a great relationship with the practitioner, another brilliant, enjoyable session”
(year 1 class teacher)
Related websites
CATCH app
CATCH is a free health app for parents and carers of children aged 0-5. The app empowers you with the information necessary to decide when your child needs medical treatment or when self-care is more appropriate.
Change4Life – healthy eating and managing weight problems
ERIC – information about wetting and soiling
NHS Choices – immunisation information
Asthma.org – asthma information
Young Minds – information about behaviour and mental health
Talk to Frank – advice about about drugs
Worth Talking About – sexual health advice
Give us your feedback
Your feedback is important to us and helps us to improve our services here at Bridgewater.
Please tell us about your recent visit or appointment by completing our online Talk to Us form.