Who are we?

We work in partnership with school public health, community children's nurses and specialist teams to make sure children and young people can access their education and short break safely.

Our nurses provide core training which gives school and residential staff an overview and awareness of general conditions, applicable to a majority of children who access these settings.

This is delivered through a rolling  programme, so it can be accessed regularly, meaning school/residential staff can respond quickly and appropriately to a change in the child or young person's health condition.

Our team will work with each individual settings to identify the training programme - it will depend on the children's needs and the staffing model in each location.

Training and competencies will be delivered and assessed annually or sooner if required.

We deliver the training in a variety of ways to meet the needs of the children and setting including face-to-face, e-learning and virtual training.

Core training

• Medication management awareness

To support staff to have a general awareness around medicines, safer storage and documentation.

• Pressure area care

To support staff to have an understanding of how to prevent pressure ulcers developing, how to recognise a pressure ulcer/moisture lesions and how to escalate concerns.

• Anaphylaxis

To make sure all the staff know how to recognise the signs of anaphylaxis and how to respond.

• Asthma awareness 

To support staff to have an understanding of asthma, the triggers and how to respond.

• Epilepsy awareness 

To support staff to understand seizure management, how to respond to a seizure and how to administer emergency medication.

Bespoke training and competency

Our bespoke training and competency assessments are delivered to meet the specific needs of the child or young person, together with a competency assessment to make sure staff are able to carry out the task safely.

Our nurses will work alongside the staff until they are confident and competent to support the child or young person's needs. The supervision and observation continues throughout the first year.

Firstly, the nurse completes an assessment of the child/young person's additional health needs. The training needs will be identified and the task risk assessed as to whether they can be delegated to unregistered staff.

The bespoke training is then delivered to specific staff who care for that child.

Bespoke packages

• Medication management: To support staff who work with children who need administration of medication. This will involve a maths quiz which will need to be completed before the competency starts.
• Enteral feeding: To support staff to safely give feeds via a gastrostomy, jejunotomy, gastrojejunostomy or nasogastric tube.
• Oral suctioning: To support staff to carry out oral suctioning safely according to a prescribed plan.
• Oxygen therapy: To support staff to administer oxygen in line with prescription.
• Catheterisation: To carry out intermittent catheterisation and catheter care safety.
• Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS): To support staff to have an understanding of this process and how to follow a child's plan.
• Blended diet: To be able to administer a blended diet safely.
• ACE stoma: To support staff who have an understanding of what an ACE (antegrade continence enema) stoma is and the management of using one.
• Non-invasive ventilation: To support staff to safely care for a young person/child with non invasive ventilation.
• Tracheostomy and emergency equipment: To support staff to safely care for an individual with a tracheostomy.

Your feedback

Staff will be asked to complete an evaluation form following the training and completion of the skills assessments.

Feedback is important to us to help us shape and improve our training and competency programme.

If you identify a training need, speak to the special school nurse/practice educator in your workplace.