Our Role in School
School Nursing Special Needs
Our School Nursing Special Needs team support children, young people and their families in the Special Needs schools in Bradford and Airedale. They support children and young people from 4 – 19 years of age, who are in a Special Needs school and have complex health and behavioural needs. They are a specialist team made up of admin support, health care support workers, learning disability nurses, children’s nurses and general nurses. The School Nursing Special Needs team works collaboratively with families and stakeholders to ensure they are fully involved in service development.
What we do:
We actively seek feedback from parents and carers, and children and young people and use this feedback to influence practice.
We complete Initial Health Assessments with the family before a child commences school to assess their health needs to ensure the child is supported to access school.
We provide school staff and Bradford Council Short Break staff training to support children and young people accessing these services.
We write care plans for students who require them, so students can access school and short break services. These care plans are updated yearly or sooner if there are any changes to the child’s needs.
We offer immunisation campaigns within the Special Needs schools: flu, HPV, Dip Tet, Men ACWY and MMR.
We offer regular immunisation preparation and desensitisation work for all the children and young people within our schools. This supports our children and young people in accessing their immunisations to keep them healthy.
We run Health Promotion sessions within the school setting including: Sun Safety, Health Eating, Accident Prevention and Hand Hygiene.
We provide “drop-in” clinics for school staff who require advice for medication administration and enteral feeding.
We facilitate clinics in schools for Paediatricians, Children and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS) and dietitians, so that children don’t have to miss time at school.
We support families with toilet training advice and continence assessments.
We support families with sleep advice for their child.
We work seamlessly with other health professionals to ensure that the health needs of our children and young people are met.
Where possible, we attend parents’ evenings and coffee mornings in the school setting, and we would be happy to discuss any concerns with you.
How to refer:
All children attending special needs schools in Bradford and Keighley will have access to the School Nursing Special Needs service. We will become involved with your child or young person when they are accepted on the roll of school and we will come out to your home to meet you and discuss their needs.
If school or yourselves need any additional support, then you can contact us (see below) or school can complete a referral form, with your consent and we will get in touch with you.
Care pathways include:
Entry into school
Assessment
Care planning
Review
Discharge /Transition Planning
Follow the link below to visit our website for more information.
https://www.bdct.nhs.uk/services/school-nursing-special-needs/