School Nursing Special Needs

Description

Who we are:

Our School Nursing Special Needs team support children, young people and their families in the Special Needs schools in Bradford and Airedale. They support children and young people from 4 – 19 years of age, who are in a Special Needs school and have complex health and behavioural needs. They are a specialist team made up of admin support, health care support workers, learning disability nurses, children’s nurses and general nurses. The School Nursing Special Needs team works collaboratively with families and stakeholders to ensure they are fully involved in service development.

What we do:

• We actively seek feedback from parents and carers, and children and young people and use this feedback to influence practice.
• We complete Initial Health Assessments with the family before a child commences school to assess their health needs to ensure the child is supported to access school.
• We provide school staff and Bradford Council Short Break staff training to support children and young people accessing these services.
• We write care plans for students who require them, so students can access school and short break services. These care plans are updated yearly or sooner if there are any changes to the child’s needs.
• We offer immunisation campaigns within the Special Needs schools: flu, HPV, Dip Tet, Men ACWY and MMR.
• We offer regular immunisation preparation and desensitisation work for all the children and young people within our schools. This supports our children and young people in accessing their immunisations to keep them healthy.
• We run Health Promotion sessions within the school setting including: Sun Safety, Health Eating, Accident Prevention and Hand Hygiene.
• We provide “drop-in” clinics for school staff who require advice for medication administration and enteral feeding.
• We facilitate clinics in schools for Paediatricians, Children and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS) and dietitians, so that children don’t have to miss time at school.
• We support families with toilet training advice and continence assessments.
• We support families with sleep advice for their child.
• We work seamlessly with other health professionals to ensure that the health needs of our children and young people are met.
• Where possible, we attend parents’ evenings and coffee mornings in the school setting, and we would be happy to discuss any concerns with you.

How to refer:

All children attending special needs schools in Bradford and Keighley will have access to the School Nursing Special Needs service. We will become involved with your child or young person when they are accepted on the roll of school and we will come out to your home to meet you and discuss their needs.
If school or yourselves need any additional support, then you can contact us (see below) or school can complete a referral form, with your consent and we will get in touch with you.
Care pathways include:

• Entry into school
• Assessment
• Care planning
• Review
• Discharge /Transition Planning

Feedback:

Patient Advice and Complaints
Do you have a compliment, comment or complaint? If so, we want to hear from you. Our Patient Advice and Complaints department are a confidential, accessible service for all users of the Trust’s services, including carers, relatives and members of the public.
Contact them on: 01274 251440 or online.

Recent feedback:
1. “Just a quick email to say the Nurses have been absolutely amazing this year. They have worked tirelessly to get through all the training this year and have done a brilliant job. They have also been very supportive during this difficult year. They always maintain professionalism and work to the highest standard. They have been put forward as 80% twice this year for their contribution to Southfield and the high standard of work they consistently deliver. 80% is a Southfield award to people who have gone over and beyond, have done something special etc. We value and appreciate their contribution to Southfield and feel privileged to be working with them and look forward to next year.”
2. “I just wanted to say a big thank you to you both in all the support you have given me and the school, it is greatly appreciated.”
3. “Just wanted to say a huge thank you for your support over the last few weeks and particularly in the meeting today. I am so grateful for your knowledge and the support that you give us in supporting students with such complex needs.  It is hugely appreciated.”
4. “Fantastic resources. Lovely to see the children not being wary of the nurse’s uniforms due the fact they were engaged with the children through play and songs. Lots of smiles were seen around. Well done girls a lot of work put into the day and enthusiasm.”
5. “Having fun with the nurse, we enjoyed fruit fashion show, naming the fruit and vegetables through fun, costumes and songs which we all loved.”