School Health & Wellbeing Service - Briefing for all primary schools including academies

Since the transfer of the delivery of the School Nursing Service to Compass in November 2015, we have been working to transform the service into a fit-for-purpose public health offer for children and young people in Warwickshire. There have been some changes along the way to ensure school health staff have the capacity to deliver the full offer in a safe, efficient and effective way to all children and young people in Warwickshire.

As part of the national Healthy Child Programme (the Department of Health evidence based programme the service is commissioned to deliver), the school health team are required to undertake health needs assessments of children and young people at key staged contacts. Reception and Year 6 are currently offered by the service; year 9 and post-16 will be rolled out during 2017.

The questionnaire is not routinely shared in advance as it is completed electronically; however the school health team are more than happy to offer sessions in schools for staff/parents/carers to discuss the questionnaire in more detail.

Anonymous, aggregated reports are shared with schools and inform the conversation around the tailored support that can be offered to schools by Compass and complement existing resources.

In order to deliver a fully confidential service, Compass are not able to share with schools the individual details of the health needs assessments or the height and weight measurements taken as part of the National Child Measurement Programme. For Compass (or any other provider of a health service) to share individual personal details would be in breach of patient confidentiality and the Data Protection Act, which forms part of their core contract with the County Council.

We will endeavour to inform schools where an issue has been identified and it is appropriate to share information, but consent must be obtained by the child and/or parent before we are able to do this.

For example, the health needs assessment in Year 6 asks “Are you being bullied?” If a child responds yes, and the follow-up contact with the family highlights the bullying issue is taking place within the school setting, we will actively encourage the family to raise this with the school in an appropriate way. We will offer support to the school and the family to achieve the best outcome.

Being able to complete the questionnaire in the school setting in partnership with schools is the most effective way to identify the needs of children and young people in Warwickshire. We will work with schools to highlight any particular issues that relate to school in an anonymous way.

I would like to encourage you to raise any questions or concerns you have about the service directly with me so we can work together to resolve them in a positive way. I will also be meeting regularly with Jane Spilsbury and Kate Gover to ensure we are working in partnership with schools and maximising the opportunities to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for children and young people in Warwickshire.

Kate Sahota

Children’s Public Health Commissioner, Warwickshire County Council

Tel: 01926 413763

email: katesahota@warwickshire.gov.uk