The government must ensure there is a school nurse for every secondary school, to reverse the downward trend in child health, a charity has urged.
The Institute of Health Promotion and Education (IHPE) has this week published a new position statement, in which it set out the vital work of school nurses and the need to bolster the workforce.
It is estimated that there are now less than 1,000 full time equivalent school nurses in the UK, compared to around 3,000 in 2010.
Many nurse leaders have associated this decline with a reduction in the public health grant in recent years, which has led to a lack of investment in school nursing services.
In its statement, the IHPE has strongly recommended that there should be a school nurse for every secondary school and cluster of primary schools.
“This must be a political priority in order to reverse the downward trend in child health in the UK,” the charity said.
Calls for this level of expansion came earlier this year, when a report by the Queen’s Nursing Institute, the School and Public Health Nursing Association and the College of Medicine set out the case for there to be at least one school nurse per school.
School nurse leaders have argued that bolstering this specialist workforce is necessary to tackle the ongoing challenges for child health.
Earlier this week, NHS Providers published a report which found that 82% of NHS trusts were not able to meet the current demand for children and young people’s services.
As such, the organisation called on the government to increase the public health grant, to restore the provision of school nursing and health visiting services.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published in June last year, pledged to increase training places for school nurses by 28%, aiming to double places to over 650 by 2031-32.
The IHPE noted the importance of a comprehensive workforce plan for school nursing, to address shortages.
It argued that healthy school communities “require a multidisciplinary team including school nurses”, which can also link to specialist support in primary and secondary care health services.
The charity highlighted that school nurses were “vital” to key interventions within schools, including vaccination programmes, accident prevention, sexual health, drug and alcohol education and management of long-term conditions.
“They are also crucial as appropriately trained advisors for outbreaks of infectious diseases and guiding evidence-based pandemic strategy planning,” the statement continued.
The IHPE has called for groups most in need, including children living in poverty and those with special education needs and disability, to have access to a school nurse “throughout their educational journey”.
This support should also be consistent for children who have been suspended or excluded from school, as school nurses can help identify underlying causes of difficulties impacting behaviour.