Agenda item

HEALTH VISITING AND SCHOOL NURSING REVIEW

To receive a report of the Acting Director of Public Health.

Minutes:

The Acting Director of Public Health pulled out the key salient points from the report. The Board were informed of the key elements of support delivered by School Nurses and Health Visitors. The review had begun in 2018 and, as part of the review, the Public Health Team had built a strong working partnership with MFT, which would help to deliver work going forward. The review looked at a wide range of elements of both services. Public health commissioned both services and MFT was the provider of those services. The current contract was in place until April 2022 and the service specification being developed was for the provision of a stepped approach that would develop over time.

 

The Acting Director of Public Health then detailed how the review was conducted and the key findings of the review. The key findings had been divided up into four areas of performance, staffing, service delivery, and other. There were many outcomes from the review and they had been captured within the service specification. An outcome framework had been developed and some of the outcomes were already being delivered.

 

The Acting Director of Public Health spoke of the important roll School Nurses and Health visitors had played in the delivery of the vaccination programme and how they would continue to support immunisation. The stepped approach would eventually lead to the creation of a separate immunisation team. The Board were informed of the crucial roll the service would play in supporting children’s healthy weight programmes. The Acting Director of Public Health concluded the overview by informing the Board of the plans to create an advanced care team to help manage demand.

 

Following the overview, the Corporate Director of Children’s Services noted the importance of developing the digital patient record mentioned within the report and the data analysis it would enable. The Corporate Director of Children’s Services added that the report needed to be circulated to various other Boards, including the Start Well Board, to ensure all relevant partners had sight of it.

 

The Chair of the Trafford Safeguarding Partnership welcomed the report and noted the need for an in-depth discussion around the findings of the review and the outcomes in relation to safeguarding.

 

The Chair of Healthwatch Trafford noted that the School Nursing service struggled with the levels of staffing and, while she welcomed the recruitment approaches suggested within the report, voiced concerns as to whether the service would be able to retain staff. The Chair of Healthwatch Trafford also raised concerns around nutrition in schools and noted that it would have been helpful to have funding figures benchmarked against neighbouring authorities. The Acting Director of Public Health responded that an exercise had been conducted at a Greater Manchester level, but it was difficult to compare due to the different types of funding used by each authority. The Chair asked whether there was an analysis which could be shared detailing the number of young people per member of staff. The Acting Director of Public Health confirmed that there was a piece of analysis available, and she would share it with Board Members via email.

 

Following the questions, the Chair moved the recommendation that the report be noted and it was agreed.

 

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Supporting documents: