June 2011 Update
School Nurse Workshop April 2011
Dear all,
you may recall that we had a 'killer question' board at the event in April, I committed to follow up responses and forward them on to you.
Please see below - if you have any queries about the responses or the school nurse development programme progressplease do get in touch - many thanks.
Questions for CNO / DCNO raised at School Nurse workshop (April 2011)
1) Will the CNO do anything regarding the 'poaching of SN to health visiting? Even if it's advice to the SHA or professional organisations
This will be addressed through the performance management of the HV
Implementation plan
2) How can we develop a programme with no resources?
Resources are not just about money. We have lots of professional expertise, enthusiasm and commitment. We have a national lead in DH working on this programme half of her time and wide ranging support from policy colleagues in DH and other departments. In addition, we have a small amount of funding to support us with the development
3) Will there be an announcement re School nursing to ensure SHAs and PCTs know about the developments?
Ann Milton did raise the important of School Nurses and the Coalitions
commitment to this workforce at the CPHVA last year, also she outlined the Programme of development at the RCN congress. In addition, there has been an article outlining the programme in the BJSN (May. We anticipate there will be a report back at the CPHVA this autumn.
We would welcome ideas from the group and how else they wish to publicise, perhaps this could be an action for the Engagement Task and Finish group.
4) Will the School Nurse programme have the same profile as Health Visiting?
The HV programme is unique in Coalition agreement and thus attracts a high profile and level of interest from professional press. It will be for us to generate interest and take all opportunities to raise profile of this programme and we will call upon our comms colleagues to support us
5) How can we link to commissioning?
The programme needs to articulate clearly the potential of school nursing
services and the role of school nurses to help future commissioners. At the right stage, we need to involve commissioning policy colleagues and local commissioners in what we are doing
6) Will School Nursing move to Local Authority? if so what will happen to governance / training etc…
We need to be clear when we are talking about commissioners, provider
organisations and employers. The Public Health White Paper proposed
school nursing is commissioned by Local Authorities as part of public health. If this were to be the case like other public health services
this could be commissioned from a range of providers largely currently
dependent on local TCS organisational arrangements eg NHS FT, Community FT, Social Enterprise. It is important to note the response to the PHWP consultation has not yet been made and also as people are aware there is a listening exercise in respect of the Health Bill (including on education and training) so we need to await the outcomes of these.
Best wishes
Wendy Nicholson
Professional Officer - Nursing
Professional Leadership team
Department of Health
BSJN asks the DH lead for School Nursing
1) Does the Department have any firm plans for School Nursing?
At the CPHVA, conference last year the minister gave a commitment to school nurses that the Department of Health would lead a development programme for school nursing. We are very pleased that the Minister has now formally approved the programme plan and we are currently working on the key elements with our stakeholders
This is an exciting opportunity to revitalise the profession, build on the good practice from the field, and explore new ways of working. The programme will include developing a service vision, which sets out the unique contribution of school health services make to the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
We will also be looking at the school nurse’s role in both in terms of public health delivery in relation to school-aged children within 'the school as a community setting and in supporting children and young people with long-term illnesses, disability and mental health issues at school and where appropriate in community settings.
The CNO directorate will lead the programme of development, working closely with the profession, partners and key stakeholders including children, young people and families.
2) How will the profession be involved in the developments?
The profession is already involved, we have held two vibrant workshops for key stakeholders in October last year and April this year, at which we worked with enthusiastic colleagues to begin to scope out the vision for school nursing and develop ideas of how we could take the work forward.
The workshop attendees were committed school nurses from a variety of settings including; operational delivery, education, service managers, senior policy leads and professional organizations. Those who attended brought a wealth of skills, experience and ideas, which we have captured and will build upon to drive the programme forward.
We have now established a steering group and a number task and finish groups with representatives from the profession to shape, support and drive the developments.
We are looking forward to working with and involving children and families and other key stakeholders in shaping our ideas, to ensure the developments meet their needs and expectations.
3) Following the announcement of the Health Visitor Implementation Plan there have been concerns that school nursing posts would be at risk. Are those concerns justified and what can school nurses locally do about it?
School nurses are a vital element of the nursing and children's service workforce, their skills and expertise complement the Health visiting workforce. Health visitors clearly focus on the 0-5 years, whilst school nurses work with and support school-aged children.
We need to ensure we have a workforce that can seamlessly support children from 0-19, where it is relevant we will align the elements of the Health Visitor
Implementation Plan with the development programme for School nursing services
In terms of workforce development and recruitment, both will be determined locally based on local need and supported by a robust needs assessment. Local areas do need to ensure they have a suitably skilled workforce that can meet the needs of children and young people 0-19 years within their community.
It is intended that the national work provides clarity for local commissioners on the contribution of school nursing services to improved health outcomes and the support of all children and young people to enable them to achieve their potential in school and beyond
4) The Public Health White Paper refers to a new vision for school nursing, would you be able to share more information on this?
The Public Health White paper reinforced the importance of school nursing as part of the public health workforce securing the best health outcomes for children and young people including delivery of the Healthy Child programme 5-19.
The Department of Health’s’ decision to develop a new vision for school nursing services reflecting their broad public health role in the school community demonstrates the DH understanding that these services are central to ensuring seamless services and improved outcomes for children and young people 0-19 yrs.
We recognise school nurses have a crucial and unique role in supporting children and young people with long-term conditions and disability, as well as supporting the mental health and well-being of children and young people, this needs to be captured in the new service vision and our work on defining the school nurse role for the future.
We are working with the profession to determine the next steps to ensure the school nursing service is prepared for the new opportunities the white paper offers.
5) How will the School Nurse developments link to DCLG, whose local authorities will be leading on public health; and DfE?
Much of the work of the Department of health is cross cutting and we therefore work closely with colleagues across Government including DCLG and DfE. Improving Public Health is a cross government ambition and there is close alignment between emerging agendas.
We will, as part of the programme of development for school nursing establish a Partnership reference group, which will include representatives from Local Authorities and key partner agencies. We want to ensure Partners and Commissioning leads are clear about the emerging vision, service model and positive outcomes that can be achieved by an appropriately resourced school nursing service.
We are looking forward to working with school nurses and partners to progress this exciting area of work and see it as a real opportunity to raise the profile of the profession within public health and the wider community.