School Health Nurse | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool

We are looking for an enthusiastic, motivated, self-organised dedicated nurse to join our school health team. The role will require candidates to have excellent communication skills, IT skills, organisational and clinical skills when supporting and working with children, young people, parents, professionals and multi-agencies.

The aim of this role is to deliver the Healthy Child Programme to the school age population within Sefton, ensuring we share the best public health information and interventions. You will also have responsibility for a safeguarding caseload, which exposes staff to complex public health issues.

A thorough preceptorship/induction programme will be offered to successful applicants, which will include regular supervision and safeguarding support. The Children’s service provides support to children, young people and their families within a progressive universal model of service delivery dependent on assessed need. The service offers every child/family a program of screening, developmental reviews and information and guidance to support parenting and healthy choices as defined by The Healthy Child Program 0 – 19 years (DH, 2023).

The Community Staff Nurse will work predominantly as part of the School Nursing team to promote and improve health and well-being of school aged children and young people to reduce health inequalities. The post holder will support the delivery of the Healthy Child Program 5-19 - up to age 25 for SEN children/young people within the team using evidence based practice and the Framework for Assessment (DH 2002).

The post holder will work in collaboration with partner agencies both voluntary and statutory to achieve good health outcomes for children and their families. The post holder may have responsibility for allocated schools as the named health professional, and will work as part of the SCPHN team with delegated responsibility for the assessment of care needs, implementation and evaluation of program of care for children, young people and families.

The post holder will have an awareness of the immunisations programme for the neighbourhood school population and be available as part of the wider teams to support in the delivery of the school aged programme and in response to disease outbreaks.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands. We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Managerial

• Be the lead person for communication for a number of schools/education establishments under the guidance of the Named SCPHN and be responsible for the development of co-operative working arrangements within the school and the extended services that support healthy outcomes for children.
• Contribute to the provision of a high quality school health service.
• Work collaboratively within the team and with primary and community care colleagues to deliver local and national health objectives.
• Work with the SCPHN to undertake workload planning and delegation of work to other team members, taking into account competence levels.
• Identify needs and prioritise own work appropriately to manage the delivery of the service.
• Support the SCPHN and team leaders to develop new ways of working to provide a responsive service to children and young people.
• Support the SCPHN to develop multi-agency partnerships and joint working to facilitate public health objectives in line with the Merseycare objectives.
• Work within a public health competency framework to address public health priorities and health inequalities.
• Participate in the mentorship and assessment of a range of students and in the preceptorship and support of new colleagues.
• In conjunction with the SCPHN provide day-to-day supervision and support for the support staff and students within the team.
• Support the team leader in providing induction to the local working environment, School Health Service and Merseycare policies for new team members and students.
• Establish and maintain a good working relationship with primary and community care colleagues and other service providers, e.g., education, working collaboratively to provide a comprehensive service to children and young people.
• Agree and contribute to setting team objectives and delivering agreed outcomes.
• Complete statistical returns as required by Merseycare including entering data onto computerised systems within the required timeframes.
• Provide workload and caseload information as requested by the team leader/Caseload Holder.
• Attend and actively participate in team, locality and other relevant meetings.
• Support the caseload holders in the implementation of practice development, improvement and service modernisation initiatives.

Leadership

• Act, contribute to and where appropriate to take lead role in a multi-agency/multi-disciplinary arena when developing packages of care to improve health and social well-being.
• Act as a positive role model to provide leadership and mentorship to other support staff and students within the team.
• Support and be involved in the development of protocols, policies and professional development as required within the organisation.

Clinical

• Practice autonomously as registered nurses and demonstrate evidence based decision making.
• Provide clinical support and knowledge to school health support workers and other support staff.
• Act as an advocate and champion for clients on the caseload.
• Undertake holistic assessments of children, young people and families in line with the Healthy Child Program and national guidelines, to identify need and referring directly to appropriate primary and secondary care, social care when indicated.
• Work with the caseload holders to develop individualized care plans to meet need, with the involvement and consent of clients, carers and other agencies as required.
• Be familiar with the National Immunisation Program for Children and be able to respond to local outbreaks if required.
• Adhere to infection control policies, giving advice to other clinical and non-clinical staff, parents and carers regarding cross-infection and infection control.
• Establish and maintain effective channels of communication to facilitate partnership working.
• Participate in the health needs assessment of the schools population to identify areas of unmet need.
• Be fully conversant with the relevant sections of the Children’s Act (1989, 2004) and to work closely with the SCPHN and Safeguarding Children’s Specialist Nurse, to ensure the highest level of protection is given to children at risk.
• Work to Merseycare Safeguarding guidelines, providing professional expertise to other agencies including preparing reports for children in care, child-in-need meetings, case conferences and legal proceedings.
• Be actively involved in all safeguarding meetings i.e. strategies, child-in-need meetings, initial and review case conferences, core groups, children in care reviews, and court attendance when required.
• Attend Safeguarding supervision as per Merseycare policy.
• Be aware of, and act in accordance with Merseycare’s clinical and organisational policies and guidelines.
• Maintain accurate and contemporaneous records both electronic and written.
• Provide clinical support and knowledge to support staff.
• Provide information to the Team Leader on staff and client activity to enable the effective management of the team.