Services for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and
Disabilities
Blackburn with Darwen’s Local Offer
Lancashire’s Health Services
1.
Name of the service and what the service provides
Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust - Universal Services – School Nursing
The service provides public health and health promoting activities to children, young people,
their families, groups and communities based on identified needs in line with the healthy
child programme. The service is delivered as per the national model for school nursing.
School nurses are specialist community public health nurses. They are qualified nurses or
midwives with specialist graduate level education in community health and the health needs
of school aged children and young people. School nurses lead and coordinate the healthy
child programme 5-19 and are equipped to work at community, family and individual levels.
They are skilled in identifying issues early, determining potential risks and providing early
intervention to prevent issues escalating.
There are 4 levels of service that can be offered to children and their families.
1. Community
The service works within school communities to look at health needs and will work together
to address these needs through annual profiling within the local primary schools.
2. Universal
The service provides the following universal service to every eligible child:

A health needs assessment in reception and year 6

A health education session for all children in reception

Height and weight measurements for all children in reception and year 6

HPV vaccine in Year 8 for all girls

DTP Booster in year 10 for boys and girls
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3.
Universal Plus
The service offers extra support to some families called ‘universal plus’. This delivers a swift
response from the team when specific expert help is required, e.g. a child who is bed wetting
or support for families who have a child with long-term health issues or additional health
needs.
4.
Universal Partnership Plus
The service works together with other local services, such as GPs, teachers, children’s
centre staff, social workers or mental health staff, to deliver ongoing support. At this level
families are supported to deal with more complex issues over a period of time.
School nursing contributes to better outcomes for children and young people with special
educational needs and disabilities and their families by:

Improving the emotional and psychological well-being of children, young people and
families;

Closing the gap in outcomes and reduce health inequalities for children, young people
and families in vulnerable groups

Improving the experience of children, young people and their families/carers using the
services

Contributing to the wider health & wellbeing outcomes
School nurses will undertake the following activities:

To lead on the co-ordination and delivery of the Healthy Child Programme 5-19 offer.

To act as named school nurses for school and settings.

To support vulnerable families and those needing extra support.

To use specialist skills to protect children and young people.

Provide public health advice, health assessments, health screening, guidance and
support to children and young people, involving their families, carers and educational
staff as required.

Ensure children have a smooth transition into school throughout all transition phases

To work in partnership with local communities including schools to build community
capacity.

To have clear participation with children, young people and families at an individual and
public level
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On-going support is provided for children and young people under the ‘universal plus’ and
‘universal partnership plus’ programme.
2.
Address and contact details and area covered
School Nurses work across all primary schools and high schools within the Lancashire Care
footprint. The Blackburn with Darwen area also provide services for young people aged
16-19 within the youth justice system and young people who are not in education,
employment or training (NEET).
Contact details:
Glenda Fox - Service Integration Manager
Children and Families, Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust
T: 01772 777136
P: Ingol Health Centre, 87 Village Green Lane, Ingol, Preston, PR2 7DS
Barbara Caren - Service Integration Manager
Children and Families Health Service (Blackburn with Darwen),Lancashire Care Foundation
Trust
E: Barbara.caren@Lancashirecare.nhs.uk
P: Room 211 Innovation Centre Evolution Park, Haslingden Road, Blackburn with Darwen
BB12FD
Contact details for the individual teams can be found on the website (link provided below).
All teams have an answerphone service for contact made out of hours.
Website link: http://www.lancashirecare.nhs.uk/Services/Children-Families/CFHS.php
3.
The service is for
School nurses are based in 25 geographical teams across Lancashire. The area covered is
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vast in terms of geography and has a diverse population. School nurses work with children
of school age (5-16 years) and the levels of need vary across the patch with significant areas
of deprivation.
Each school nurse is linked to a group of schools within their local area however; the service
is flexible to work with families across teams to ensure a seamless service where families
have children at different schools or pre-school. All school children based within one of the
426 primary schools and 83 high schools are eligible to receive the school nurse service.
School nurses have a significant role in leading and coordinating the delivery of public health
interventions to address and population needs. The school nursing workforce is relatively
small and cannot deliver the extensive healthy child programme in isolation. The contribution
of the school nurse is clearly defined locally and strong partnerships are built and sustained
between local organisations and with children, young people and families. Under the
‘universal partnership plus’ support, school nurses work together with other local services,
such as GPs, teachers, children’s centre staff, social workers or mental health staff, to
deliver ongoing support for more complex issues over a longer period of time.
School Nurses, in collaboration with other appropriate professionals, provide ongoing
additional services for vulnerable children, young people and families requiring longer term
support for a wide range of special needs such as disadvantaged children, young people
and families, those with a disability, those with mental health or substance misuse problems
and risk taking behaviours.
School Nurses are well positioned to identify health issues and provide every support to
ensure problems do not escalate to crisis point. They contribute as part of a multi-agency
team, to the response for children, young people and families who have multiple problems
and where appropriate, school nurses will refer on to specialist services.
4.
Accessing the Service
School nursing is a universal service offered to all children, young people and families.
Requests for service are accepted from Child Health Departments, Children’s Centres,
Schools, Children’s Integrated Services, Acute trusts, GP practices and from children, young
people and parents themselves. The service is free of charge to all school children based
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within our geographical area and there are no waiting lists to receive the service.
School nurses are trusted and valued by children and young people. In a recent service user
survey;

96% of young people surveyed said they would recommend the service to someone
they care about.

99% of young people surveyed said they were treated with dignity and respect.
The School Nursing service contributes to the following key outcomes;

Strong parent-child attachment and positive parenting, resulting in better social and
emotional wellbeing among children

Care that helps to keep children healthy and safe

Readiness for school and improved learning (Pre-school information collected to
inform the background data supporting the school entry assessment and learning
and development information shared with schools as appropriate)

Early recognition of growth disorders and risk factors of obesity

Early detection of – and action to address – developmental delay, abnormalities and
ill health, concerns about safety and support for particularly at-risk children & young
people

Healthy eating and increased activity leading to a reduction in obesity

Prevention of communicable diseases

Identification of factors that could influence health & wellbeing in families

Better short term & long term outcomes for children who are at risk of social
exclusion

Improvements in the quality and experience of health services used by children,
young people and families

Improvements in health & wellbeing outcomes (such as increased immunisation
uptake, improved management of chronic conditions and reduced bullying)

Improvements in broader health and wellbeing outcomes (such as higher life
satisfaction, participation in positive activities)
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
Improvements in educational outcomes

Safe and effective transition to appropriate adult services
5.
Decision making processes used to determine who is eligible to receive a service.
All school children within the covered geographical area are eligible to receive the school
nursing service. Some children will receive different levels of the service dependent on their
need and this will be explained to families. Children, young people and families are actively
involved in planning and agreeing their plan of care.
6.
Methods of communication with service users/patients and how they are involved in
decision making/planning.
All teams have an annual service user participation plan in place. Previous methods of
communication with service users and patients has involved the use of questionnaires to
generate attitudes towards what the service does well and what can be improved. Other
methods of communication include:

Information leaflets; Customer Care, Sharing Information With us

Information provided on the Trust Website

Feedback forms

Information provided in schools
The service uses Language Line to communicate with children and young people or parents
and carers whose first language is not English. Children, young people and their
parents/carers are actively involved in planning and reviewing their plan of care. No
parenting learning or training events are provided.
7.
Service Accessibility.
Children, young people and families are offered services in a range of settings (e.g. home or
school) and where appropriate through different media acceptable to children, young people
and Families, e.g. using telephone access points and email. Where children and young
people are seen on school premises or within their own homes, these buildings will be
suitable for the needs of all individual children.
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All teams have an answerphone service for contact out of hours.
8.
Workforce Skills and Training
The school nursing service have a robust development framework in place to assess staff
competency and ensure that every member of staff is enabled and empowered to deliver
safe and effective care which is person centred and gives children, young people and their
families a positive experience of their involvement with the service. Mandatory training and
school nurse specific training is required to be completed by all staff. The service also
provides training for specialist practitioner students for school nursing in conjunction with the
University of Central Lancashire.
The School Nursing service work closely with:
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
GPs

Pharmacists, dentists and opticians

Community paediatricians

Staff working in maternity services

Children’s Services professionals

Staff in schools and Children’s Centres

Staff working in acute (health) care settings

Staff working in community, voluntary and faith sector organisations
Contacts for further information
The first point of contact for a parent/carer or young person to discuss something about their
care would be the practitioner delivering the care. If the child/young person or parent/carer
has any urgent worries and concerns they should contact the school nurse assigned or Child
and Family Health Service base (details found on Trust website).
Health Visitors, General Practitioners, Paediatricians, therapists and other professionals will
also provide support or interventions for the child or young person. All children and young
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people who are eligible for the school nursing service will receive the core universal
programme. School nurses will be able to address whether a child or young person needs a
higher level of service and would benefit from this support.
All teams have an answerphone service for contact out of hours.
10.
Feedback
Queries, compliments and complaints can be discussed with a member of staff delivering the
child or young person’s care, however, if you wish to make a formal complaint or compliment
the Trust process detailed on the website can be followed:
http://www.lancashirecare.nhs.uk/contact-us/Complaints.php.
Incidents and complaints which are received are thoroughly investigated and lessons
learned shared within the service. All teams have an annual service user participation plan
in place, which includes a Friends & Family test and an Internal patient satisfaction survey.
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