School nurses are registered nurses who work for NHS Lothian. We work with education staff and other services to oversee the health and wellbeing needs of the school aged children and young people within our community.
The school nursing service pathway has 10 key priority areas in which to focus on. These areas are agreed by the Scottish Government and ensure school nurses work with children and young people to benefit their healthy outcomes.
Priority Areas of School Nurse Pathway:
- Emotional health and wellbeing
- Child protection
- Domestic abuse
- Care experienced children and young people
- Homelessness
- Transitions
- Substance misuse
- Sexual health and wellbeing
- Young carers
- Youth justice
COMPLEX NEEDS
If your child attends a complex needs or specialist provision school, they may have a school nurse team based in school. If you need further information on this, you can contact your child’s school.
CONFIDENTIALITY
All information shared with the service is confidential and will only be discussed with another agency if a wellbeing concern is identified. In this case the child, young person, parent or carers will be informed.
School nurses use Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) framework to assess, and identify needs of the children and families.
Contact details of school nursing team
North West Edinburgh
Pennywell All Care Centre, 1D Pennywell Gardens, Edinburgh, EH4 4UA
Tel: 0131 286 5045
loth.nwsnteam4@nhs.scot
North East Edinburgh
Allander House, 139-141 Leith Walk, Edinburgh, EH6 8NP
Tel: 0131 446 4644
loth.nesnteam5@nhs.scot
South West Edinburgh
Slateford Medical Practice, 27 Gorgie Park Close, Edinburgh, EH14 1NQ
Tel: 0131 455 9857
loth.swsnteam3@nhs.scot
South East Edinburgh
Gracemount Medical Practice, 24 Gracemount Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 6RN
Tel: 0131 672 9526
loth.sescteam1@nhs.scot
West Lothian
Bathgate Primary Care Centre, Whitburn Road, Bathgate, EH48 2SS
Tel: 01506 651824
loth.schoolnursingwlothian@nhs.scot
East and Midlothian
Musselburgh Primary Care Centre, Inveresk Road, Musselburgh, EH21 7BP
Tel: 0131 446 4141
loth.schoolnursingeastandmidlothian@nhs.scot
Note: School nurses are unable to respond to personal emails, so please use telephone number if you are a parent or carer
Information for children and young people
Primary Schools
A school nurse is a qualified nurse from NHS, who will come to school to support children, young people, and parents. Every school has an allocated NHS nurse.
The school nurse service will screen all children starting primary one, making sure they have their height and weight measured, and have had a recent vision test.
School nurses offer Health Promotion in schools on subjects such as:
- Handwashing
- Hygiene
- Puberty
- Mental health awareness
School nurses can also be asked to work with children either in a 1-1 setting or in a group. They can attend meetings and support children and young people with health and wellbeing needs. They can support parents and carers, with issues such as sleep, behaviour, poor diet and many more issues.
Secondary schools
In secondary school, school nurses may see young people individually or in a group setting. Young people can self-refer to the school nurse or ask their parent, carer or guidance teacher to complete a referral.
School nurses can offer support or guidance with:
- Anxiety/worries
- Sleep
- Diet
- Sexual health and relationships
- Behaviour
- Substance misuse
- Healthy living
We can also signpost to other services that may be helpful.
In some secondary schools there may be a health drop in. The health drop ins will offer the same service and access to a school nurse, however this is more of a self referral. These drop ins mainly happen during lunchtime, or after school and are either within the school setting or nearby in a community setting.
School nurses work with other agencies to support young people with their wellbeing and health. The school nurse will link with Healthy Respect, which is an NHS service, who also offer support and guidance to young people. This can include sexual health and relationships.
School nurses can also do health promotion in classes. This may be part of the curriculum covering sexual health and relationships, or an awareness session on a relevant health issue.
Information for parents and carers
Information for parents and carers
Every school has an allocated NHS school nurse. If you would like to talk with a school nurse, please see our contact details. We are unable to respond to personal emails, however if you leave contact numbers the appropriate school nurse will contact you.
Alternatively, you can discuss with school, and ask the school nurse to contact you. School can make a Request For Service which will be sent to the team.
The service works closely with families, parents and carers, for all children. For children over the age of 13 years, we offer 1-1 support or group work in school with health or wellbeing needs. This is a confidential service. Please see confidentiality statement on first page.
We can support with many different aspects of health, including physical and mental health, moving from nursery to primary school, moving to high school, development, behaviour, sleep and diet.
Information for professionals
The School Nursing Team contributes as one of the many core NHS Lothian agencies surrounding the child/young person to ensure that they are meeting their full potential. The School Nurse can support to meet unmet health needs of a child/young person through direct intervention or signposting.
The School Nursing Team is made up of:
- Team Managers – band 7.
- Specialist Community Public Health Nurses (SCPHN) – band 6.
- School Nurses – band 5.
- Health Assistant -School Nursing Service.
The School Nursing service is governed by the Ten Priority Pathway. However, as part of a wider multidisciplinary team the School Nurse can offer support in a varying degree of areas including:
- Universal Health Screening services
- Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Emotional and Behavioural Support
- Parental Support
- Health promotion/education, e.g. healthy lifestyles, risk-taking behaviours, etc.
- Nocturnal enuresis – referrals accepted from medical professionals only
- Sexual Health
The School Nursing has a standardised Request for Assistance form that must be completed and returned to the shared mailbox for each specific cluster. Health professionals, schools, third sector agencies and young people above the age of 13 can refer into the school nurse service.
