We follow the City of Edinburgh Council’s procedures for the management of pupils with health care needs in educational establishments with NHS Lothian. Our team will be pleased to support you to manage your child’s care- simply get in touch via the school office. Please do not send medication into school via your child’s school bag or pass to a staff member. Only the office can receive and organise medication in school.
We follow the advice given by Public Health Scotland which you can find here.
For everything you need to know about headlice click here.
We have a number of first aiders here in school. We always err on the side of caution and children see a first aider whenever needed. For head bumps we always send a red letter home and, if a first aider feels a child is not well enough to be in school, we will contact you. If your child has a significant knock or bump we may contact you to discuss next steps.
School Nursing Team
The School Nursing team is made up of the
- School Nurse (Specialist Qualified 3rd part Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registrant – now masters level 11 post graduate degree)
- Community Staff Nurses (Registered Nurse on Part 1 of NMC – undergraduate degree)
- Community Health Assistants (not a nurse, may have SVQ qualifications in care related field)
Services provided
Universal Services for All School Age Children:
Child Health Surveillance Programme
- P1 eye tests by Health Assistant – (only for those who did not receive this preschool in nursery)
- Growth Measurements by Health Assistant– currently at Primary 1 and Parent health Questionnaire (this may change in the future dependant on Scottish Government obesity strategy and the Health Visitor assessment at 4-5 years preschool)
- Primary 7 health questionnaire – growth measurement may be added in the future linked to Scottish Government obesity prevention work
- Drop in Services – a drop in health zone for High School Pupils (either in school or community facility) who are seeking advice or support on sexual health and health related issues
Education of Staff and Pupils
- Staff training – CPD in-service days on health actions plans, anaphylaxis etc – will be usually be delivered by the staff nurse
- Healthcare Plans for pupils – education staff will be supported by staff nurses on the planning and education
Healthcare Needs of Children with Moderate to Complex Physical Nursing Needs:
- For children in Complex Needs Schools, nursing care needs will be delivered by the nursing team who are based in these designated schools
School Nurse Services for Children/Young People with Increased Needs:
10 key areas specialist school nurses will focus on:
- Emotional Health and Wellbeing
- Substance Misuse
- Child Protection
- Domestic Abuse
- Looked After Children
- Homelessness
- Youth Justice
- Young Carers
- Sexual Health
- Transitions
How to Refer
Children can be referred to the School Nurse by their school or their GP or other health care professional. Children and young people can also self-refer. They can do this by discussing this at drop ins or asking their teacher/ guidance teacher to refer them. Parents can refer by discussing with their GP or child’s teacher/ guidance teacher.
Further information
Our NHS Lothian School Nursing Service web pages:
Who Does What
- GP – all regular family health care
- CAMHS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health – Specialist service
- Hospital Paediatric – medical/surgical and other specialist services
- Community Paediatrician – doctors in community child health
- CCN Team – Community Children’s Nurses – specialist paediatric trained nurses
- AHPs – Allied Health Professionals – speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, orthoptics – referral based service
- CVT – Community Vaccination Team – nurses who deliver vaccination services to all age groups
- Learning Disability Services – where there is LD diagnosis
- Oral Health – Dental – prevention and treatment service
- LAC – Looked After Children – nurses who work only with looked after children. When notified by Social Work that a child has become looked after, the LAC nurses will undertake a health assessment. They may refer to school nursing for ongoing reviews and wider support.