School Nursing Service

We work very closely with the school nursing service in promoting good health, assessing medical needs and conducting immunisation and vaccination campaigns.

You can contact the school nursing service at any time using their single point of access via the details below.

The school nursing service states...

 We work with children and young people (CYP) aged between 5 to 16 years old (or up to 18 years old if in full-time school education).

The service has a unique position working between health and education, promoting good health and emotional wellbeing of school-aged CYP in Hywel Dda. We are a contributor to the early years’ development of children which targets identified health needs. This is through screening programmes such as vision and audiology testing, as well as the surveillance of height and weight of all 4 and 5-year-olds as part of the Child Measurement Programme.

 

We provide holistic, individualised community and population-level public health services which includes the delivery of all school-based immunisation programmes. The nurses provide health promotion in schools on a wide variety of topics which range from healthy eating, hand washing and emotional wellbeing, to puberty and sex and relationship education. We aim to enable and encourage CYP to make healthy lifestyle choices and improve their emotional resilience.

 

The School Nursing Service makes a significant contribution to improving health outcomes with evidence-based prevention and early intervention to reduce health inequalities for all CYP, and works as part of a multi-professional approach to safeguard the health and wellbeing of all CYP.'

gwasanaeth nyrsio ysgol school nursing service bilingual poster a3 with spoa.pdf

 Immunisations and vaccinations

Vaccinations delivered by the School Nursing Service

 

Vaccinations have a significant role in preventing death and illness. After clean water, they are the most successful public health intervention, not only protecting the individual but also the wider population by preventing the spread of vaccine preventable diseases (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2016).

The School Nursing Service is responsible for delivering all school-aged vaccinations in schools, including mainstream, private, special needs and alternative education venues. It does not provide any to home educated CYP who can access these vaccinations from their GP.

 

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)

HPV is a very common virus which usually has no symptoms. It can cause genital warts and some cancers later in life, including cervical cancer, and head and neck cancers. More than 70% of people who haven’t had the HPV vaccine will contract HPV at some point. This vaccine protects against HPV and has been delivered in secondary schools to pupils aged 12 – 13 years (Year 8) - to girls since 2008 and to boys since 2019. The vaccine programme started as a three-dose course, went down to a two-dose course and has now been reduced again to a one-dose course.

 

The programme has been highly effective and evidence has shown a reduction in cases of cancer-causing HPV in young women (VPDP 2023). 

 

The MenACWY vaccine provides good protection against serious infections caused by meningococcal (Men) A, C, W and Y diseases. Meningococcal disease usually occurs as meningitis or septicaemia. Most people make a full recovery, but some infections are particularly severe. They can be fatal and result in permanent damage to the brain or nerves. This vaccine is delivered to pupils aged 13-14 years (Year 9). It is a one-dose schedule and is given at the same time as the Td/IPV.

 

Tetanus is a painful disease affecting the nervous system, diphtheria is a serious disease that can damage the heart and nervous system. Polio is a virus that attacks the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis of muscles. In severe cases, tetanus, diphtheria and polio can kill.

 

The 3-in-1 teenage booster vaccination helps to boost protection against tetanus, diphtheria and polio. Children are offered four doses of the vaccine to protect against these diseases before they are four years old. The teenage booster is the fifth dose, which will give most people lifelong protection. It is delivered to pupils aged 13-14 years (Year 9) providing they have received their pre-school booster vaccine at least 5 years previously.

 

Measles, mumps and rubella are highly infectious diseases that can easily spread between people who are not vaccinated. These diseases can have serious, potentially fatal, medical complications including meningitis, encephalitis as well as hearing loss and deafness.

MMR is one of the pre-school vaccines delivered at 9 months of age with a second dose at 3 and a half years. The SN Service actively looks for CYP with missing MMRs, direct to their GP and then offer mop-ups in secondary schools

 

Immunisation schedule

Health promotion sessions

Health Promotion Delivery

The School Nursing Service delivers a wide range of health promotion to the whole age range of school pupils. The list is not exhaustive as bespoke sessions can be delivered as needed: This starts with hand hygiene, healthy eating, personal safety, preventing head lice, puberty, growing up and hygiene in Primary Schools. In Secondary Schools they deliver updated puberty, healthy eating, healthy relationships, sexual health education, contraception and self-checking for cancers. The need for subjects covered depends on latest activities of young people, i.e. vaping, self-harm etc.

Drop-Ins

All School Nurses hold a drop-in session in their Secondary School. This is where CYP can access their School Nurse without school or parental involvement.

These can be useful sessions for individual health promotion, low-level emotional wellbeing support, general health advice or signposting to other services. Some pupils have found this to be their safe space within their school day.

The school nurse offers drop in on a Wednesday.

Helpful links

 

Puberty and Healthy relationships

 

Sexual health education