Job summary
This is a fixed term contract for up to 13 months, commencing February 2026.
Internal applicants who wish to be considered for a secondment opportunity should discuss with their line manager the suitability of a possible secondment
This is an exciting opportunity to join the leadership team of our innovative and progressive School Nursing Service.
Are you a dynamic Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (School Nurse) seeking a new challenge? Do you have the passion to be a leader and to inspire colleagues in the specialist field of public health nursing; working with children and young people to improve their health? Do you have a special interest in children with special educational needs and disabilities? If any of these questions excite you, get in touch!
Main duties of the job
The post holder will work in collaboration with the Operational and Professional Head of School Nursing and the senior management team to:
- Deliver operationally efficient and effective services
- Co-ordination of the team to ensure continuity and the most effective use of resources
- Collaborate with colleagues using a Quality Improvement approach to identify and implement change to drive quality and effective delivery of care
- Provide strong professional leadership
- Adopt corporate and clinical governance and best practice principles in service delivery
- Ensure effective performance management using audit and evaluation tools, monitoring, reporting mechanisms and other systems
- ensure high quality service to meet the needs of the local population with knowledge and understanding of community assets available to them
- Take the lead on service innovation and development to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities
- Lead on quality improvements to ensure the school nursing service is agile and able to adapt to the needs of families of children with special educational needs and disabilities.
The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.
About us
We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.
Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:
- 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
- 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
- 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.
This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.
Job description
Job responsibilities
We work in collaboration with children and young people developing services that they want. We provide mobile working with laptops and electronic records, enabling place based and digital first interventions. We have developed social media platforms and use Chat Health in response to requests of young people and families.
As an ACEs aware county we work in partnership with children, young people and families ensuring a trauma informed approach and shared decision making through restorative practice.
We work in skill-mixed teams ensuring the right person is offering the care/interventions that are needed.
We provide a robust leadership structure ensuring all colleagues are supported with the SCPHN taking the lead in triage and allocation of workload.
Please refer to the Additional Information attachment before submitting your application.
The Trust is required to work in line with the Governments UK Visa and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information about sponsorship for certain roles, please visit - https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas
Job description
Job responsibilities
We work in collaboration with children and young people developing services that they want. We provide mobile working with laptops and electronic records, enabling place based and digital first interventions. We have developed social media platforms and use Chat Health in response to requests of young people and families.
As an ACEs aware county we work in partnership with children, young people and families ensuring a trauma informed approach and shared decision making through restorative practice.
We work in skill-mixed teams ensuring the right person is offering the care/interventions that are needed.
We provide a robust leadership structure ensuring all colleagues are supported with the SCPHN taking the lead in triage and allocation of workload.
Please refer to the Additional Information attachment before submitting your application.
The Trust is required to work in line with the Governments UK Visa and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information about sponsorship for certain roles, please visit - https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- SCPHN(SN) qualification is essential
- Leadership and Management qualification
Experience
Essential
- Considerable experience of leading and implementing service development initiatives, utilising change management and project management frameworks and tools
- Experience of meeting the competing demands of a caseload of children with complex health needs and the operational governance demands of a skill mixed team.
- Previous experience of challenging others practice or service provision, within and outside the organisation and escalating concerns as appropriate.
Knowledge
Essential
- Extensive knowledge and understanding of public health nursing particularly in relation to school aged children
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the health needs of communities and wider determinants of health that impact equality
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- SCPHN(SN) qualification is essential
- Leadership and Management qualification
Experience
Essential
- Considerable experience of leading and implementing service development initiatives, utilising change management and project management frameworks and tools
- Experience of meeting the competing demands of a caseload of children with complex health needs and the operational governance demands of a skill mixed team.
- Previous experience of challenging others practice or service provision, within and outside the organisation and escalating concerns as appropriate.
Knowledge
Essential
- Extensive knowledge and understanding of public health nursing particularly in relation to school aged children
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the health needs of communities and wider determinants of health that impact equality
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
