The Parks Primary School
This community has many serious problems ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to domestic violence and everything in between. As a result the school has very high safeguarding case levels and as a result some pupils at the school have significant emotional health needs.
The Parks is a very caring school and its Head, Mrs Cathy Byrne, and her staff have developed an ethos where academic expectations are high and attainment levels are improving steadily. Continually striving to help her pupils reach a level 4 in literacy and numeracy by the time they leave The Parks, Mrs Byrne recognised there was a need in school for someone who could fulfil a role that would help support the children in coping with the challenges and distractions of every day life. The role that is being developed at the Parks to bolster the school's efforts is that of 'Welfare for Learning Officer'. Cathy Byrne explained; "We deliberated long and hard about what kind of person we wanted for this role. We considered employing our own social worker or education welfare officer but in the end we felt the option of a qualified and experienced school nurse ticked more boxes for this role."
Welfare For Learning Officer - 'Nurse Tracy'
Experienced school nurse, Tracy Maull (known to the children, parents and staff as Nurse Tracy) has been seconded to The Parks Primary School by CHCP CIC on a service level agreement to fulfil this new role. She qualified as an RGN in 1987 and has been in school nursing since 2004 and has a specialist community public health degree with a school nursing specialism.Tracyhas worked at the school for some time delivering the core school nursing services, that every school gets, funded by NHS Hull through the Department of Health, but now works at The Parks 3 days a week delivering School Health+ Services (additional school health services bought by schools direct from CHCP CIC).
Cathy Byrne said: "Nurse Tracy works so closely with us on so many key issues that it is very difficult to separate out and quantify the valued contribution that she is making. It is a true joint effort and because of Tracy's involvement we are certainly helping more families and improving the wellbeing of our children to help them focus on learning."
School Health+ Services
Tracy Maull's remit at The Parks is predominantly safeguarding and emotional health. Cathy Byrne explained; "Safeguarding issues can crop up at any time of day and there is no way we, as a school can plan for them or co-ordinate them. These issues are often urgent and before we had the Tracy on board, my Deputy Head Nicky Sansam had to drop everything to deal with them. Nicky was being dragged away from her teaching role far too regularly for far too many hours. She was also working stupid hours - at times until 10 pm at night. Now the two of them share responsibility for safeguarding and Tracy also picks up the emotional health issues that are all too often a by-product of the difficulties children are facing at home."
Nicky Sansam said: "Nurse Tracy is seen as a source of help by our families. She is not the school. She is not social services. She is an independent healthcare professional offering a helping hand. It takes a long time to build up trust in a community like ours. Tracy has shaped the role herself and makes an important contribution to the way we run the school. Parents pop in and ask for Tracy's help and this is a huge step forward."
Tracy explained: "CHCP CIC is a progressive healthcare organisation always looking for new and innovative ways of working and making a difference. Every school has a unique set of needs and my main focus at The Parks is to deal with anything that impacts on the child's ability to learn. This can be low level problems such as personal hygiene right through to serious safeguarding issues".
Over 60% of Tracy's role at The Parks is safeguarding, dealing with ad hoc situations as and when they arise and attending case conferences and early intervention meetings on behalf of the school. But she also deals with medical absences, ongoing health problems and health care plans at The Parks. She does group work on confidence building and self-esteem and some one-to-one work with children who have anger management issues.
Cathy Byrne added: "The CHCP CIC service we have brought into for The Parks is very much tailored to the needs of this school. The role is very diverse. As well as the safeguarding Nurse Tracy provides as the major part of her role, she also deals with other wellbeing matters. Additionally Nurse Tracy covers everything from soiling problems, head lice control and promoting healthy packed lunches to helping parents who have mental health issues that affect their children in school ".
Although it is early days for 'School Health+' at The Parks and the 'welfare for learning position' is new and unique, the nurse and the school are working very closely together to develop it for the future. There have been some adjustments on both sides bringing the two professional disciplines together. Education in the school environment is very fast paced and challenging as they must continually work towards attainment achievements and manage distractions. The health care practitioner on the other hand has certain standards to maintain regarding, for example, record-keeping and confidentiality as part of their Code of Professional Conduct. The partnership is making good early progress and beginning to make a difference to children and families.
Making A Difference
Cathy Byrne concluded: "Tracy is not only relieving the pressure as far as our safeguarding case load is concerned, but there are certain things that only a qualified nurse can do. Nurse Tracy obviously has access to medical records enabling her to make sound judgements in this role. Also when healthcare situations crop up in school - for example - 'a child with a slapped cheek infection has a pregnant teacher' - with Tracy in post we can confidently turn to her knowing we will get well-informed, reliable advice. She has the clout to deal with health and safeguarding related issues and our children and parents trust her."