School nurses win new care contract for Telford
A team of award winning school nurses have won a tender to continue looking after children across Telford & Wrekin.
The school nurses of Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust have successfully won a tender let by Telford and Wrekin Council for the next three years.
The trust will provide the school nurse service to the 53 primary schools and 13 secondary schools across Telford and Wrekin.
The same team was recently named the national School Nurse Team of the Year by the Nursing Standard for their ground-breaking work with children with asthma.
Winning the tender means that the nurses will continue to support health and wellbeing programmes for all children and young people aged five to 19 in schools and the wider community.
The team of school nurses take over care from health visitors, who provide services from pregnancy to the first five years of life.
The service has carried out work in recent years to make itself as easy to use by the children and young people as possible.
It has started drop in sessions that young people can attend and has also opened up the option for pupils to seek help and advice through a texting service.
School nurses provide confidential advice, care and support to children, young people, parents and carers through a range of services including hearing tests and health assessments, to emotional support and help with long term health conditions.
Jo France, school nurse manager and professional lead for school nursing at the trust said: "We want children and young people to get the very best start in life through giving them support with both their physical and emotional health.
"We have 12 nurses working closely with children, schools and local communities in Telford and Wrekin, and we're all absolutely delighted that by winning this tender, we can carry on doing so and build even stronger links."
The new school nurse contract starts on September 1 for three years.
