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The Special School Nursing service supports the health care needs of children and young people attending one of 7 Worcestershire Special Schools.
Contact the Neighbourhood Teams
North Locality:
Chadsgrove School and Specialist Sports College, Rigby Hall School, Pitcheroak School and Wyre Forest School.
Address: Princess of Wales Hospital Bromsgrove
Telephone number: 01527 488446
South Locality:
Vale of Evesham School, Fort Royal Community Primary School and Regency High School.
Address: Child Development Centre Shap Drive Worcester:
Telephone number 01905 681865
About the service
The Special School Nursing service provides support to Special Schools to enable the school to meet the holistic care needs of children and young people when attending school. Although this is primarily through training and supporting school staff, all children can access direct support and advice from the Special School Nurse if they choose. This can be alone or with a parent or carer present. Each school has a Named Special School Nurse linked to it, however the nurse is not always on site.
The Special School Nurse will assess the health care needs of children and young people on school entry. They will provide training to school staff to ensure school staff can provide care needs safely within the school setting. This will support the child or young person to achieve their full potential in both education and wellbeing. The team also provides Health Education to promote healthy lifestyles.
All children should have access to the right services, at the right time, to make sure they can reach their full potential. We work together with other agencies to ensure that the right professionals are involved at the right time to meet the needs of you and your child. Find out more about how the Trust supports children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)
Who Works Within The Service?
The service is managed by the Team Lead for Special School Nursing. All Nurses are Registered professionals in either:
- Registered Learning Disability
- Registered Children’s Nurse
- Registered General Nurse
All nurses have experience relevant to the needs of the children in their care. The nurses are supported by Health care assistants within the Team who also undertake administrative duties.
Our Special School Nurses all place children, young people and families first, delivering safe high quality services that empower and enable children, young people and families to achieve their full potential.
How to refer
Professionals can refer to the service by emailing the Generic email address: whcnhs.ssn@nhs.net
How can a young person refer themselves?
Children and young people or parents can arrange to see their Special school nurse by any of the following:
- Visiting the Nurses office within school to arrange a time and place
- Asking school staff to arrange a suitable time and place
- Email: whcnhs.ssn@nhs.net
- Calling the relevant school office number or Locality base number
Safeguarding
Special school Nurses work closely with other Health professionals and Children’s Social Care to ensure that all Children and Young People within our area are safe and cared for. If the Special School Nurses have any concerns about a child or young person, they will aim to discuss with parents and seek consent to discuss with other professionals.
Care provided by the Special School Nurses includes:
- Clinical assessment and planning care of all New starters within school.
- Training Education staff in clinical skills required to meet the child’s needs for example:
- Administration of prescribed medication
- Management of Epilepsy including emergency medication
- Enteral feeding tube feeding
- Catheter care
- Education Health & Care Planning (EHCP) and annual reviews by providing information to support Health needs in school.
- Looked After Child health assessment and annual reviews.
- Promoting Continence through advice and product management.
- Liaison and support for parents about their child’s Health and well-being
- Support Transition to adult services.
Who We Work With
Good communication with other professionals involved in the care of children and young people is important in delivery of effective care. This communication may include:
- Health Visitors
- GPs and Community Paediatricians
- Community Children’s Nursing ( Orchard Service)
- Speech and Language Therapists
- Physiotherapists
- Occupational Therapists (OT)
- Audiology (hearing)
- Ophthalmology (vision)
- Podiatry (feet)
Please inform your nurse if you don’t want them to have contact with these services.