The School Nursing Service supports children and young people from ages 5 to 19 in mainstream school as part of the Healthy Child Programme (D.H 2009).

They are led by specialist community public health nurses who are all qualified nurses or midwives with additional graduate-level training in the health needs of children and young people. Supporting the SCPHNs are a team of highly skilled community staff nurses, child health and wellbeing assistants, and school health assistants.

School Nursing Referrals

The School Nursing service is one important component of the support available to school-age children and their families, to promote health and emotional wellbeing in Buckinghamshire, as part of the Department of Health’s Healthy Child Programme.

Buckinghamshire Health Trust supports children and young people in Buckinghamshire schools with medical, social, emotional, or physical needs, to help each person achieve their potential. This helps them to get the most from life and education and become responsible for their own health. The team works in partnership with children and young people, their families, and other health and education professionals in schools, clinics, and family homes. They also work with colleagues in health, care, and education services across Buckinghamshire to help shape children’s services.

The ever increasing demand for the service means they must ensure they make the best possible use of their highly skilled specialist nursing teams. In order to do this, Buckinghamshire Health Trust have reviewed their referral requirements and kindly requests that all referrals are completed according to these criteria. These allow the team to determine if they can offer the appropriate level of care and support for the child’s needs.

Submit a referral

Training Sessions

The School Nursing Service is no longer providing yearly updates for Allergy (Anaphylaxis) and Asthma training on a routine basis. They now recommend schools source the resources and training via e-learning, available via Anaphylaxis Campaign and Asthma UK.

Anaphylaxis

Visit Allergywise for schools (allergywise.org.uk) 

Visit Anaphylaxis 

Asthma

Visit Education for health, E-learning  

Visit Asthma (org.uk)

Face-to-face Training

The School Nursing Services will still provide face-to-face training in the instance of some new diagnoses or for cases that are more complex. Please email bht-schoolhealth-enquiries@nhs.net, so a member of the team can get in touch to discuss the most appropriate training level for your school and the child’s needs. All requests for face to face training will be triaged and it is important to note:

• when the last date of the attendance at the BCC “Supporting Children in School with a Medical Condition” training.
• whether the e-learning modules have been accessed

Training will be in small groups and it can sometimes be beneficial to invite the parent/carer, child, and school key workers where appropriate. E-learning can be accessed throughout the year whenever necessary and is an ideal learning resource to update knowledge prior to school trips or other events.

The BHT Paediatric Outreach Nurse supporting children with complex medical needs in Mainstream School is also able to provide training on a variety of health conditions. E.g epilepsy, feeding tubes, and catheterisation.

Other Specialist Nurses may provide training on other conditions e.g. cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and stoma care. Please make contact with the child’s medical professionals via their parents/carers for this training.