School Nurse Drop-in Sessions (primary and secondary pupils)
Every Thursday, 3.00pm – 5.00pm (including school holidays)
Health Visiting Hub, 1st floor, St Catherine’s Health Centre, Derby Road, Birkenhead CH42 OLQ
Who we are
Our School Nursing Service provides support for a seamless transition from health visitors to school nurses. It’s led by specialist public health nurses, qualified nurses and screeners.
Our vision is to enable Wirral’s children, young people and families to access services quickly in order to be secure, healthy, have fun and achieve their full potential.
What we do
Our service supports children and young people aged 5 – 19 in primary and secondary schools and home educated children, as well as their families and carers. Support is also provided to schools and alternative education providers – every school has a named school nurse.
Our team works in partnership with schools and other professionals to keep children healthy, happy and safe. They promote health and wellbeing, as well as offering the childhood vaccination programme.
Our school nurse service works in partnership with Barnardo’s and Brook. We also work in collaboration with the Local Authority, schools, GPs youth services and many other community services to support the needs of children, young people and their families.
The service is confidential, non-judgmental and inclusive and treats all children and young people with dignity, respecting gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health abilities, religion, culture, social background and lifestyle choices.
School nurses work across four teams and can be contacted on 0151 514 0219:
- Birkenhead
- Wallasey
- West Wirral
- South Wirral
Our service offers individual, holistic care and if we are unable to meet the needs of children and young people we will try and find someone who can. Our team has a duty of care to share information safely with appropriate services if we felt children and young people were at risk.
What we offer
- school entry health and well-being checks – reception and year 7
- vision and hearing screenings for all reception aged children
- height and weight monitoring in reception and year 6 (National Child Measurement Programme)
- health promotion and education
- advice and support
- vaccinations programme
- sign posting and referrals into other services
- safeguarding support
- promoting the welfare of children and young people
- weekly drop-ins in secondary schools
- training to staff and parents on how to manage specific health needs in school
- drop in advice sessions both for parents and young people, including our Health Service in Schools sessions delivered in most secondary schools
- support, advice and guidance to other professionals and parents on a variety of topics to do with health and wellbeing
Additional and targeted support includes:
- contributing to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people
- following up of attendances at Accident and Emergency Departments
- supporting children and young people with additional health needs
- emotional health and wellbeing support
- following up school absences due to health needs
- support around Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder support
- partnership working with other organisations such as Children’s and Young Peoples Services, private and voluntary organisations
- health assessments and referrals for Looked After Children and vulnerable children
- safeguarding support for vulnerable children and young people including children and young people who have special needs and who have been excluded from mainstream education
- first level support and referrals in child and adolescent mental health issues
- targeted support for vulnerable children from our Teenage Teen and partners; Barnardo’s and Brook
Support with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
ADHD is the most common behavioural disorder in children. It usually starts at about 18 months old, but symptoms usually become noticeable between the ages of 3 and 7.
If your child has attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), they may have lots of energy and find it difficult to concentrate. It can be hard for them to control their speech and actions.
We don’t know what causes ADHD, but experts think it runs in families. It could also be caused by an imbalance in brain chemicals.
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a related condition which has similar symptoms, but there is less hyperactivity and the main problem is difficulty concentrating.
Symptoms of ADHD include:
- feeling restless or fidgety
- talking a lot and interrupting
- becoming easily distracted
- finding it hard to concentrate
- saying or doing things without thinking
If you child experiences one or more of these symptoms, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are affected by ADHD.
If you have concerns with ADHD, please speak to your School or School Nurse – 0151 514 0219.
Our partners
Brook
In Partnership with our school nurses, Brook lead and deliver a friendly, effective evidence-based school and community education programme on positive sexual health relationships and risk taking behaviour in order to reduce teenage conception and chlamydia rates.
The programme particularly addresses the needs of boys and young men, in terms of:
- consent to sex
- contraception and infections
The programme includes:
- condom use – discussion, demonstration and provision
- pregnancy testing options – counselling if positive, support into the termination of pregnancy pathway if appropriate, post procedure counselling
- chlamydia testing and treatment
- emergency hormonal contraception provision
- first line contraception and follow up provision
- age appropriate introduction to community sexual health services
Barnardo’s
Barnardo’s work with partners including schools and the local authority to identify children and young people who are in need of early help and where appropriate provide support to improve their life chances and prevent abuse and neglect. They also refer and signpost to the appropriate specialist services when needed.
Their service offer includes:
- range of health promotion programs in the areas of emotional wellbeing, tobacco control/smoke free and substance misuse in line with the national developments and guidance
- one-to-one and / or group work to promote the importance of good emotional health and wellbeing and the negative factors involved in risk taking behaviour, including alcohol and substance misuse, self-harm and sexual activity.
Special school nursing
Children with special/complex needs
Our school nurses in specialist schools are the first point of contact for health related issues for children and families. They work closely with a number of professionals in health, social care and education and actively support clinical interventions for children and young people with particular health needs eg intermittent catheterisation, gastrostomy feeding and providing regular training in managing common medical conditions, for example epilepsy, diabetes, anaphylaxis, asthma and emergency medications is a key requirement of the role.
The special school nursing team provides direct nursing care to children aged 2-19 years within the four Schools for Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD).
- Elleray Park School, Elleray Park Road, Wallasey CH45 0LH (primary)
- Foxfield, New Hey Road, Woodchurch CH49 5LF (secondary)
- Meadowside, Pool Lane, Wirral CH49 5LA (secondary)
- Stanley School, Greenbank Drive, Pensby CH61 5UE (primary)
The School Nursing Service is part of Wirral’s 0-19 Health and Wellbeing Service.
