School Nurse

Job responsibilities

• Provide professional and team leadership to manage a defined team to deliver the public health priorities in Somerset to school age children between 5-19 years as defined in the Healthy Child Programme working to national and local objectives. Lead school profiling and develop whole school population public health programmes.
• Work with vulnerable children and families in line with national and local policies relating to safeguarding children and to provide specialist support and advice to children, families and schools regarding the health and wellbeing needs of children.
• Work in partnership with other agencies, particularly health services, education and social care. Manage and co-ordinate programmes of intervention for a caseload made up of schools and individual children and families to plan, implement, monitor and review programmes of intervention based on identified health and social needs.
• Understand, uphold and promote the aims of the council’s equality, diversity and inclusion policies; health, safety and wellbeing of self and others; and Organisational values in everything you do. Equality and Diversity practice covers both interaction with staff, service users and communities and includes challenging discrimination and promoting equality of opportunity for all.

Key Responsibilities

• Work flexibly and creatively within designated educational and community settings in terms of health care. Co-ordinate workload commitments and priorities, including the national child measurement Programme, Personal Health and Social Education (PHSE) and Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) sessions within schools and School Based Young Peoples Clinics.
• Plan and deliver key public health initiatives for children and young people, focussing on childhood obesity, sexual health, teenage pregnancy, smoking cessation, emotional health and wellbeing and substance misuse maintaining overall accountability for all schools within the Locality.
• Identify need through Health Needs Assessment and provide personalised advice and support to young people regarding health and social issues, including relationships, emotional health and wellbeing and risk-taking behaviours. This will include contraception and sexual health which will involve condom distribution via the C card, Chlamydia screening/treatment and emergency contraception distribution via a patient group directive.
• Maintain an overview of all the open child Protection cases discussed at supervision in the area and the delegation of work streams to the relevant skill mix. Co-ordinate attendance at child Protection Case Conferences/Professional Meetings as required. Work in partnership with families, schools, other health care professionals, Children’s’ social care and Locality Safeguarding Nurses as appropriate for safeguarding issues in accordance with Somerset County Council policies and procedures.
• Undertake appropriate assessments and support including, Review Health Assessments for Children in Care, Level 1 continence.
• Lead the setting up, promotion and delivery of young people’s clinics in partnership with educational and community establishments to promote general health and wellbeing of children and young people. Consult with education senior management teams, school governors and parents.
• Ensure children with complex needs and/or safeguarding needs are referred appropriately for further assessment and planning of care.
• Plan own workload priorities and manage work effectively by utilising individuals’ skills, knowledge and competencies. Have a flexible approach to the working day and the academic year to meet the needs of the service.
• Contribute to health and social learning programmes for young people in a variety of settings. Develop care programmes for targeted and vulnerable children in conjunction with families, school and other professionals.
• Support and inform education staff on health promotion issues and where necessary individual healthcare needs. Assess children with additional needs in both main stream and specialist schools and ensure that educational provision is appropriate as required.
• Identify and support pre-school children who may have difficulty with transition between Pre School and schools and support the transition and older children who may have difficulty with transition between schools and support the transition.

Understand, uphold and promote the aims of the council’s equality, diversity and inclusion policies; health, safety and wellbeing of self and others; and Organisational values in everything you do. Equality and Diversity practice covers both interaction with staff, service users and communities and includes challenging discrimination and promoting equality of opportunity for all.

Contacts & Relationships

• Children, young people and families.
• Education Providers, Head Teachers and Schools.
• Community Services, Fire and Police.
• Public Health Directorate, Somerset CCG.
• Heads of Service, Children and Young People Provider Services and Locality Leads.
• Primary Care GP practices.
• Midwifery Services, Paediatric Services, Integrated Therapy Services.
• Voluntary Sector.
• External relationships with other agencies and Acute NHS Trusts.
• Allied partnerships, eg Drug & Alcohol Action Team.

Communicate in person, face to face, in writing and, where appropriate, electronically with all the above contacts.

• Establish clear lines of communication between all members of multi-agency and professional Primary Care teams, working collaboratively with all relevant health care professionals and agencies including Children Social care.
• Liaise with other agencies, professionals, organisations to keep them informed of service provision and with consent, advise on individual cases.
• Identify improvements to service provision, policies and procedures.
• Co-ordinate inter-agency/partnership working to enhance access to services and provide comprehensive service provision.
• Vary the style and level of communication with individuals, families and carers to meet the differing levels of understanding and actively involve young people (where appropriate) in decisions about their own healthcare. 
• Attend and contribute to Area team meeting monthly to facilitate effective communication within children and young people’s services.

Resources

• Monitor levels of equipment to enable appropriate service delivery, select suppliers of clinical and non-clinical equipment.
• Supervise and delegate work streams to the skill mix of staff and maintain an overview of service delivery in the area through effective communication and regular planning of meetings.
• Prioritise work and manage time effectively by utilising individuals’ skills, knowledge and competencies and co-ordinate monthly Team meetings as appropriate.
• Enable and support the development of skills and competencies of all members of the team through ongoing supervision, regular appraisal and the development of individual.
• Personal Development Plans, including preceptorship and act as an assessor for pre/post registration students and providing community/public health knowledge. Delivering training programmes on behalf of the service to internal and external services as appropriate.
• Recommend and initiate improvements in service delivery to clients and to implement changes in practice, where appropriate.
• Induct new members of staff within the team and identify an appropriately experienced mentor.
• Participate in the supervision, teaching and provision of experiential learning opportunities for nursing students and other personnel as appropriate.
• Participate in the appraisal programme and undertake appraisals with skill mix staff as required.

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered School Nurse.
• Public Health Specialist Practitioner Degree (or equivalent qualification pre 1988).
• Evidence of continued professional development.

Desirable

• Leadership programme or prepared to undertake a course.

Experience

Essential

• Recent school nursing experience.
• Experience of working across agencies.
• Understanding and experience of the application of research in practice.
• Evidence of child protection experience.
• Experience in identifying and assessing health needs including community and school profiling health needs.
• Demonstrate working knowledge of the Public Health and Preventative Strategy.
• Working knowledge of child protection procedures and policies.
• Ability to organise and deliver education on a 1-1 or group setting.
• Required to have responsibility for a caseload and delegate appropriately, with ability to organise and prioritise workload.
• Willingness to lead teams public Health Nurses and Assistants.
• Proven clinical and managerial leadership ability.
• Report writing knowledge and skills.
• IT Competent.
• Maintain records as per NMC Guidelines/local policy.
• Good listening, communication and ability to form good working relationships with colleagues and clients.

Desirable

• Audit and research skills.
• Experience of children looked after assessments.

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Effective verbal and written communication skills.
• Flexibility in working days and approach to service needs.
• Proven ability to manage time and resources.
• Adaptable approach to clients and their needs of the service.
• Act in ways that value and support Equality and Diversity.
• Passionate about improving the health and wellbeing of others and addressing health inequalities.
• Access to transport with appropriate business insurance.

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).