Taking a position on school nurses' role in safeguarding

On the 4th of November, the School and Public Health Nurses Association (SAPHNA) in collaboration with the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) and the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) published the long-awaited policy position on the safeguarding role of public health nurses (iHV et al, 2024). This is a call for action to ensure the public health function of 0–19 services is not lost.

The policy position was written in response to school nurses who raised concern about their public health roles being eroded, diminishing their ability to effectively work to improve the health and wellbeing of school-aged children and young people and contribute to reducing inequalities. In response to SAPHNA's (2024a) inaugural survey of school nursing, school nurses told us that they have seen a rise in the number of children who are being supported on child in need and child protection plans. The impact is that they are spending more and more time working ‘downstream’. Thirty-seven percent of respondents who work in school nursing services in England told SAPHNA that they spend 75% or more of their time attending child protection and child in need meetings. They felt that they are ‘at the table’ as the ‘health representative’, however, that they are not always best placed to be supporting the child. School nurses told SAPHNA that they are struggling with the challenges of balancing the expectations of supporting school-aged children and young people on plans while effectively delivering their wider specialist public health role.