East Sussex School Health

Contact us

Please visit our website at East Sussex Children for information about health topics and training support for schools.

Referring to the East Sussex School Health Service is easy:

0300 123 4062 – School Health One Point (SHOP)
kentchft.esschoolhealthservice@nhs.net
Online referral form

We are available from 8.30am until 5pm, Monday to Friday, including school holidays.

Text Your School Nurse

Need to speak to someone now contact us by text using our confidential text messaging service for parents and carers of children of ages 5 to 19 years and also young people aged between 11 to 19 years.

07507 332 473

Find us on Facebook – /ESSchoolHealth

Who we are

Your School Health Team is led by registered, qualified nurses who have a specialist community public health degree. The team consists of community staff nurses, assistant practitioners, health improvement staff, school nurse assistants and administrators.

We work closely with a number of other services, including: Education, GPs, Children’s Integrated Therapy Services, paediatricians, the voluntary sector, youth services and East Sussex Children's Services.

All of our colleagues that work within schools and with children, families and young people have enhanced disclosure and barring checks (DBS); we are committed to promoting the healthy development, resilience and welfare of all children and young people.

What we do

Our focus is on promoting the health and wellbeing of all school-aged children from four to19 years-of-age, striving to deliver the very best care that we can. We do this by completing a health assessment with you and your child or the young person themselves, to identify the most appropriate intervention and potential outcome and we will work with you to achieve this. Where we are unable to help, we will always signpost or refer you to a more suitable service.

How do you use our service

Children, young people and families can access our service in a number of ways. Children must be between the ages of four and 19.

Young people can self-refer via any of our drop in clinics at secondary schools/colleges, by contacting us through our confidential texting service 07507 332 473. Parents and professionals are welcome to contact us using the details above or by completing our online referral form.

East Sussex healthy schools programme

The East Sussex healthy schools programme builds on previous evidence-based approaches developed locally and is supported by East Sussex Public Health and the East Sussex School Health Service.

The healthy schools programme brings together the following three components that support schools in taking a systematic approach to health and wellbeing:

the school health check (helping you to achieve Healthy Schools Status)
a new pupil survey for Year 6, Year 9 and post 16 students, my health, my school, and
a new updated PSHE offer from the School Health Service.

The Healthy Schools programme supports schools to recognise and celebrate achievements in whole-school health improvement and provides a simple way to collate a range of evidence that will be useful for Ofsted inspection judgement areas.

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96%

Friends and Family test (FFT) question - percentage of positive responses

(Survey feedback from July to September 2024)

You said, we did

Missed telephone calls from the service were not returned and as no messages were left the parent was unaware who had rung. Parent was then advised by letter that child had been discharged from the service.
- July 2023
A new process has been put in place which entails the service making two attempts to contact parents, including leaving voice messages and allowing a reasonable time frame for contact to be made with the service, before it is necessary to discharge the child and a re-referral is needed.

A parent attending a workshop felt questions about female genital mutilation (FGM) were inappropriate for that particular session.
- April 2023
For future workshops, the service added a framed question about FGM and produced guidance for staff to assist with parental questioning.

The process and content of group webinars for parents could be improved.
- November 2023
Changes made:
Parents are now given an option at triage to proceed straight to webinar without an initial assessment.
Prior to webinar, assessment has been amended to check understanding of webinar and foundations of sleep.
Content of webinars re-written as the foundations to frame healthy sleep.
Clear options are provided on webinar and by staff on how to access more support.
Taking questions from parents during a webinar is being trialled.
The pack provided following a webinar has been renewed; a copy of webinar and clear discharge letter with links and instructions on how to access more support.

There was a misunderstanding about the reception-aged programmes being opt-out rather than consent being required.
- November 2023
In preparation for next year, the service amended the parent/carer letter, to include clear explanation that the programmes are opt-out and details on how to do so if required.

Missed telephone calls from the service were not returned and as no messages were left the parent was unaware who had rung. Parent was then advised by letter that child had been discharged from the service.
- July 2023
A new process has been put in place which entails the service making two attempts to contact parents, including leaving voice messages and allowing a reasonable time frame for contact to be made with the service, before it is necessary to discharge the child and a re-referral is needed.

A parent attending a workshop felt questions about female genital mutilation (FGM) were inappropriate for that particular session.
- April 2023
For future workshops, the service added a framed question about FGM and produced guidance for staff to assist with parental questioning.

The process and content of group webinars for parents could be improved.
- November 2023
Changes made:
Parents are now given an option at triage to proceed straight to webinar without an initial assessment.
Prior to webinar, assessment has been amended to check understanding of webinar and foundations of sleep.
Content of webinars re-written as the foundations to frame healthy sleep.
Clear options are provided on webinar and by staff on how to access more support.
Taking questions from parents during a webinar is being trialled.
The pack provided following a webinar has been renewed; a copy of webinar and clear discharge letter with links and instructions on how to access more support.

There was a misunderstanding about the reception-aged programmes being opt-out rather than consent being required.
- November 2023
In preparation for next year, the service amended the parent/carer letter, to include clear explanation that the programmes are opt-out and details on how to do so if required.

Your comments

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December 2024

The support provided and by spending time with them helped my child massively with their anxiety.

October 2024

My child was seen very quickly. The nurse was excellent, the process was clearly explained to my child and the paperwork was sent to me so that I could print it out. It was all very positive, the nurse rescued my child in a way that I could not.

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