Case studies

North Tyneside Council's project to improve speech, language and communication in the early years of a child’s life has helped to reduce the gap between socio-economically disadvantaged children and their peers.

Warwickshire has a school health and wellbeing service which incorporates school nurses and a healthy lifestyle team. Between them they take a holistic approach to supporting children and their families to eat healthily and exercising regularly. This case study showcases the important role of school nurses in the education system.

Helping children and young people enjoy good emotional health and wellbeing and develop resilience is really important to their overall health and development. Walsall's school nursing service - delivered by school nurses employed by Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust – provides a wide range of support to children and parents through a programme of group sessions, courses and webinars. This case study showcases the important role of school nurses in the education system.

The challenge of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions have led to an innovative approach to children’s mental health from school nurses in Northamptonshire.

Wakefield Council’s award-winning Liaison and Diversion Service is helping young offenders steer themselves away from crime by providing support for everything from mental health problems to help accessing education and training. The approach has proved so successful it is now being replicated in other areas. This case study is an example of how councils are tackling youth violence.

Leicestershire’s school nursing service has set up a text messaging service for secondary school pupils. It has helped the service engage hard-to-reach groups with pupils reporting it makes them feel more comfortable discussing sensitive issues.

The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) aims to improve the life chances of first-time young parents and their children by breaking the cycle of disadvantage.

Haringey’s Anchor Project is an early intervention that uses attachment and trauma theory to inform practice and support the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people.

Like all areas, Swindon has a well-established range of support for children identified as overweight or obese during NCMP. The school nursing service will offer families an appointment to discuss concerns, give diet and physical activity advice and can refer them on to healthy weight programmes. This case study forms part of our resource on the National Child Measurement Programme.

In many areas school-based immunisation programmes are run separately from 5-19 Healthy Child Programme services, but that is not the case in Stockport where the HPV, the teenage three-in-one booster and MenACWY vaccines programmes are delivered by the service. The approach has helped ensure high uptake of immunisations and meant the service was well placed to respond to the demands placed on it by the pandemic. This case study showcases the important role of school nurses in the education system.