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Services for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and
Disabilities
Lancashire’s Local Offer
Lancashire’s Health Services
1. Name of the service and what the service providesLancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust - Children’s Integrated Therapy and Nursing services (CITNs) – Special School Nursing (SSN)
The special needs school nursing service exists to provide skilled evidence based care to all special needs children and their families in the special school settings, providing support for the parents, carers and school staff in meeting the health needs of children with complex needs. The services activities include:
• Providing holistic care for all children with special needs registered to a special school, this will include individual care plans and specific care delivered as required.
• Providing appropriate training for special school staff around specific nursing needs and tasks.
• Working in partnership with other agencies statutory, private and voluntary sectors in order to meet the complex health needs of children registered to a special school and their families throughout East Lancs.
• Promoting social inclusion with children at special school for families that through disability find themselves disadvantaged.
• Acting as key worker for children registered at special school and their families
• Identifying those children who are at risk of being harmed either physically or emotionally and act accordingly in line with child protection policy.
• Contributing to the Common Assessment Framework and Team around the Child process to ensure that children’s additional and safeguarding needs are fully identified and communicated
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and act accordingly in line with child protection policy.
• Contributing to the Common Assessment Framework and Team around the Child process to ensure that children’s additional and safeguarding needs are fully identified and communicated
Special School Nurses offer a universal service to all children within special needs schools and support children with complex needs in mainstream schools. There are no specific limitations on the amount of care that can be provided. Care is delivered whilst the child is in school with home visits as required. Care is on-going as per the care plan.
2. Address and contact details and area covered
The service is provided in the special needs schools as listed below;
• Pendle Community High School and College – Oxford Road, Nelson • Pendle View Primary – Gibfield Road, Colne
• Ridgewood Community High School – Eastern Avenue, Burnley • Hollygrove School – Barden Lane, Burnley
• White Ash – Thwaites Road, Oswaldtwistle • Broadfield – Fielding Lane, Oswaldtwistle • Newfield – Blackburn
• Sir Tom Finney – Blackpool Road, Preston • Acorns – Blackpool Road, Preston
• Coppice – Ash Grove, Bamber Bridge • Mayfield- Gloucester Road, Chorley
The Special school nursing service is part of the integrated therapy and nursing service. The bases and contact details are:
• Chorley & South Ribble - Croston House, Leyland Tel 01772644512; • Preston & Longridge – Ashton Health centre, Preston Tel 01772 777215 • West Lancashire – Daniels Lane Skelmersdale Tel 01695588195
• Blackburn with Darwen – Daisyfield Mill, Blackburn Tel 01254 584249;
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282592;
• Burnley and Pendle – St Peters Centre, Burnley 01282 644360
Support offered is standard across Central Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and East Lancashire. There is no out of hours contact.
3. The service is for
This service is designed for children and young people with special educational needs and is provided within special needs schools within the localities stated above. The service
therefore covers school ages: 2-19 with the potential to increase to 25 following the SEND reforms.
No referral is necessary if the child attends one of the 12 schools listed above. Children attending mainstream school who have complex needs identified can access the special school nursing service for training and support. Each child in mainstream school would have a health needs assessment completed to identify any nursing need.
If there is an unmet need, a Common Assessment Framework will be completed and Team Around Family meeting arranged to identify any unmet needs and which service is best placed to meet them.
4. Accessing the Service
Children and Young People accessing a special school will be able to make direct contact with their assigned special school nurse. There is no referral process as all children
attending one of the 12 special needs schools will have access to the special needs school nursing service. The service is free of charge.
There are no waiting lists within the special schools as all children are on the caseload. The service has previously conducted a patient experience survey and received positive feedback. The service outcomes are as follows:
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• To provide a safe and effective service.
• To support seamless transition from primary to secondary school and transition to adulthood.
• To support children and young people with complex and or additional health needs including education, training and support for families cares and school staff.
• Identifying children and young people in need of early help and where needed provide early support and to improve life chances and prevent abuse and neglect. • To give health contribution and part of the multi-disciplinary team.
5. Decision making processes used to determine who is eligible to receive a service.
Children attending special schools are automatically eligible for the service. Each child in mainstream school would have a health needs assessment completed to identify any nursing need
Parents and carers will be involved in care planning for their children. School nursing staff will discuss decisions made during the care planning process.
6. Methods of communication with service users/patients and how they are involved in decision making/planning.
Previous methods of communication with service users and patients has involved the use of questionnaires to generate attitudes towards what the service does well and what can be improved. Other methods of communication include:
• Information leaflets; Customer Care, Sharing Information With us, • Feedback forms
• Information boards in schools • Information in school prospectus • Letters
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English. Face to face interpreters are also used and some school nurses use basic Makaton. Every child attending a special needs school will have an annual review. Some schools have access to school medicals carried out by the consultant paediatricians. Parents will be kept informed of progress.
Competency based training for education staff can be arranged. Training can also be arranged from outside agencies for school staff around specific conditions.
7. Service Accessibility.
Special needs schools will be fitted for accessibility and will be wheel chair accessible, auditory and visual environments, toilet and changing facilities. Children will be able to access all parts of the service provided as schools are designed to be fully accessible. There is no out of hours service.
8. Workforce Skills and Training
The service has senior nurses who manage their own caseloads and are key worker for vulnerable children and instigate safeguarding procedures. They also link between health, education and social care and determine health needs of children and families and delegate work accordingly.
The special need school nurse works as a member of the team to provide skilled evidence based care and is responsible for the assessment planning and care for clients. The nurse contributes to the training and development of others and works in partnership with other members of the integrated team.
Health care support worker carries out delegated tasks from the school nurses to provide care within their scope and support the school nurse in training and development of staff.
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School nurses work as part of the children’s integrated therapies and nursing service and work closely with children’s social care.
9. Contacts for further information
The first point of contact for a parent/carer or young person to discuss something about the care would be the practitioner delivering the care. The senior nurse within the school should be contacted with any worries or concerns.
The school nursing service takes guidance and advise from the clinical lead and professional lead for nursing within the CITN’s team
All children in special schools are eligible for the service and will be able to discuss their needs with the nurse assigned.
There is no out of hours contact provided.
10. Feedback
If a service user wishes to make a complaint or give a compliment, they can firstly discuss these with the nurse or therapist working with your child. If you felt that this was not appropriate, all the CITN teams have a team coordinator who would be the next point of contact. However, if you wish to make a formal complaint or compliment we advise you to follow the Trust process detailed on the website: http://www.lancashirecare.nhs.uk/contact-us/Complaints.php
As a service we welcome feedback regarding your experience, this can be given directly to the nurse or therapist providing the support or to the team coordinator as detailed above.
