Who we are
We are qualified nurses with a wealth of specialist knowledge, skills and expertise.
We work in special schools to support children and young people with complex health needs by training and competency assessing the school staff to enable them to meet the health needs of the children.
We are committed to providing children and young people with the quality care they deserve, from appropriately trained and competent staff, who not only understand the child’s condition, but also the potential impact their treatment has on them and their family.
What we do
We work in partnership with other agencies to enable the school to meet the complex health needs of the child their family by doing:
- Staff training: We train school staff to safely manage seizures, give medication and tube feeds.
- Competency checks: We assess staff to make sure they can perform specific health tasks like tracheostomy care and oral suctioning.
- Care plans: We help schools access personalised care plans for conditions like epilepsy and asthma.
- Return-to-school support: We attend meetings when a child returns to school after a change in health needs.
- Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs): We contribute to EHCPs and annual reviews.
- Transition support: We support younger people’s transition to adult health services.
- Medication guidance: Our team works with the to support medication management and deliver training on medication theory.
We provide advice, support and signposting by working in partnership with other services such as Kent School Health, Children’s Community Nursing Teams, Community Paediatrics and the Short Break Service.
Referral criteria
Every child attending one of the special schools listed below will undergo a triage process. If they meet our criteria, a health needs assessment will be completed. Based on this assessment, each child will be assigned a band according to the following criteria:
- Band 1: No additional physical health needs identified.
- Band 2: Some additional physical health needs.
- Band 3: Moderate physical health needs.
- Band 4: Complex health needs.
- Band 5: Unstable or unpredictable health needs.
The Special School Nursing Service, commissioned by the Integrated Care Board (ICB), provides a training model for education colleagues, enabling them to deliver hands-on care to children with complex needs. We offer this service to select schools and further education institutions through external contracts. Any child or young person with a complex health need attending one of the special schools listed below, classified at band three or above, will automatically have access to the Special Schools Nursing Team. Please contact us if you would like more information on whether a child or young person’s complex health needs can be supported by our team.
Contact us
Office hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm
Tel: 0300 790 0283
kentchft.specialschoolnursingservice@nhs.net
Our schools
Ready, Steady, Go, Hello programme
In healthcare, we use the word 'transition' to describe the process of preparing, planning and moving from children's to adult services. To support people with a long term condition through transition, we've adopted the Ready, Steady, Go transition programme.
This programme has been developed by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and you will be directed to their dedicated website.