Job responsibilities
To develop, implement and evaluate a comprehensive school health service that is aimed to continuously improve standards of health and social care for the school aged population; and the facilitation of collaborative and multi-professional working across professional and organisational boundaries in partnership with key statutory and voluntary organisations.
This will be achieved through leadership and clinical excellence for our staff and involvement, self-care and personalisation for our service users; taking into account corporate and directorate objectives within the clinical governance framework which underpins the National Service Framework and Healthy Child Programme.
Job Summary
The post holder will be professionally responsible and accountable for the assessment of health needs, planning and evaluation of the school health service delivery, for both individuals and groups within a defined school age population delegating casework to team members as required. They will work in partnership with schools, parents/carers and other agencies to achieve the best health outcomes for children and young people.
Main Duties and Responsibilities:
- Deliver holistic health assessments and care plans for children and young people.
- Develop and maintain multi-agency partnerships at school and borough levels.
- Mentor and support the development of pre-registration and SCPHN postgraduate students.
- Lead service delivery initiatives, including drop-in sessions and allocation meetings.
- Promote and increase the visibility of school health services in local communities.
- Participate in safeguarding processes, multi-agency case conferences, and Early Help strategies.
- Support training programmes for schools regarding medical needs and public health initiatives.
- Maintain accurate electronic records using the RiO system and contribute to audit and governance activities.
- Engage with the ChatHealth text messaging service and other digital platforms to support accessibility.
As the key health worker, the school nurse will promote the health and well being of the school-aged child so as to enable each child to reach his/her full potential in line with Newhams inclusive education policy. This will help to minimise effects of social, cultural and racial inequality.
The post holder will be required to develop a specialist role in areas of school nursing practice in line with service requirements and their personal development plan.
Key Tasks and Accountabilities:
Key tasks and accountabilities are intended to be a guide to the range and level of work expected of the post holder. This is not an exhaustive list of all tasks that may fall to the post holder and employees will be expected to carry out such other reasonable duties which may be required from time to time.
To undertake all responsibilities listed below:
1. Provide a service to a caseload of children as the named school nurse in appropriate settings such as school, clinic, home, youth clubs, special educational units and other educational establishments.
2. Identify and work in partnership to provide a service to vulnerable and socially excluded children who may or may not be attending school.
3. Work collaboratively within the community hubs, in
partnership with children, young people, parents / carers and other agencies, e.g. education, social services, other healthcare workers and the voluntary sector to meet the needs of children and young people.
4. Complete a targeted school entry health assessment for children entering a school in Newham. This includes the screening of vision, hearing, growth, general health and any other concerns/problems as identified.
5. Work in partnership with immunisation nurses to achieve immunisation programmes targets through liaison with parents / carers, pupils, schools and the community pharmacist in line with relevant policies.
6. Plan, deliver and evaluate health promotion activities in line with the school health curriculum, public health and locally agreed priorities.
7. Offer individual support and advice to children, young people, parents / carers, teachers and other professionals.
8. Demonstrate user involvement through surveys, meetings, focus groups etc. to plan for meeting the needs of the community.
9. Identify and devise appropriate individualised health care plan for the school aged child through continuous development, implementation and evaluation of programmes of care. Contribute to the assessment and review of special education and medical needs.
10. Identify and provide training programmes as identified through the needs of schools.
11. Adhere to local child protection procedures. Represent health at case conferences, core group meetings and other meetings as required. Monitor the health of children who have the child protection plans and those of concern. Provide accurate reports for case conferences and participate in the decision making process for child protection.
12. Attend and participate in Team Around the School (TAS) meetings in the relevant geographical area aligned to caseload.
13. Provide reports at short notice for social services initial investigations.
14. Refer children to other agencies as appropriate and document referrals in progress notes contemporaneously.
15. Use school health profiling to develop the service to meet the needs of the school age population and to influence local policies as well as developing knowledge of local services and resources.
16. Work in partnership with the specialist clinical leads to develop and agree local service provision agreements for schools.
17. Support clinical team leaders in the provision of operational duties/ responsibilities and participate in clinical and child protection supervision.
18. Provide preceptorship / mentorship to associate school nurses and preregistration and other students. Associate school nurses preceptorship programmes will include joint Child Protection Supervision, attendance at initial child protection case conferences, supervision and monitoring of school nursing procedures as appropriate. Student mentorship will comprise of planning, teaching, and assessing
19. Provide cover for sick or absent colleagues as required.
20. Keep accurate and contemporaneous records in line with policies and NMC guidelines.
21. Ensure that all records are perused and transferred out / in as per service record keeping procedure on RiO and use the Early Help record templates as required.
22. Record statistical data for input onto the ICT system to meet data entry deadlines as required by the service.
23. Provide mental health support as tier 1 practitioners to children, young people and their families to identify concerns and where necessary refer on to other services.
24. Continuous review of induction programme to new staff which reflects the trends and changes of knowledge and guidelines.
25. Contribute to quality data collection which will be used to inform users and commissioners and improve the development of an evidence-based school nursing service.
26. Participate in audit programmes for reviewing service development.
Professional Responsibilities
1. Comply with the NMC Code of Professional Conduct (Jan 2024) and ensure revalidation every three years to renew registration.
2. Seek out and make use of research findings relevant to the work of the school nursing team so as to ensure that clinical practice within the team is evidence based.
3. Participate in clinical and child protection supervision.
4. Undertake regular review of performance with line manager to agree personal and service objectives.
5. Develop practice through continued education, which will benefit development and delivery of service and meet continuing professional development (CPD) requirements. Attend mandatory and other training. Keep an electronic record of all training.
6. Report any incidents / accidents to the line manager and complete the reporting forms as appropriate
7. Undertake other duties as required that are commensurate with the aims of this post.
