This week is Child Safety Week (4th - 10th June) - a chance to bring together individuals and organisations around the UK to promote important safety messages to families. This blog showcases some good examples of local initiatives and introduces updated evidence-based resources, serving as a powerful call to action enabling you to make a commitment to help reduce unintentional injuries to children. Accidents are a leading cause of death, serious injury and acquired disability for children and young people in the UK. Many of these accidents can be prevented.  Child Safety Week, run by the ..read more

  Just over 6 years ago I ‘virtually’ met a very determined mental health nurse via twitter, during various tweets @paul_RMHN raised in regards to the issue of the challenges that military children face. And on many occasions he posed the key question – how can we improve support for the children of those who serve our country? If I’m honest it wasn’t an area we had identified as part of the School Nurse Development programme – my Dad served in the Royal Navy, his brothers and my mother’s brothers all served in the forces and indeed both my grandfathers – even so I hadn’t thought about ..read more

With nearly a third of children aged 10-11 either overweight or obese, it is clear that obesity and its associated health risks should be raised with families in a sensitive, open and empathetic manner. Talking about weight can be tricky and some health and care professionals may not find this easy; however they are often well placed to initiate sensitive discussions and support positive changes in behaviour. In August 2016, the Government launched Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action, setting out the approach to prevent and reduce childhood overweight and obesity. The plan discussed the nee ..read more

      Growing up and family life isn’t always easy and the journey for some can be a roller-coaster. Family breakdown, bereavement, poor nutrition, bullying, drug taking, sexual health - are all challenges and present risk across the whole of our society. Children, young people and families are as unique as the challenges they face – meaning some will be better placed to deal with risks, whilst sadly others may not. Nurses working with children, young people and families can make a real difference – they are a voice to lead, change and support resilience. Advances in prevention ..read more

We all want to keep children safe wherever they are and we know that accidents are most likely to happen to children in the home and on the roads.  Healthcare and other professionals have an important role to play in reducing unintentional injuries. This blog highlights two reports PHE has published in partnership with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the Child Accident Prevention Trust. These provide an update to reports published in 2014, analysing the latest data and setting out the actions health professionals and local partnerships can take to reduce risks to chi ..read more

On 18th March it was National Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Day.  The day is now extended across the week to maximise awareness.  The week  highlights the issues surrounding Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE): encouraging everyone to think, spot and speak out against abuse and adopt a zero tolerance approach to adults developing inappropriate relationships with children or children developing inappropriate relationships with other children. CSE is a form of sexual abuse that involves the manipulation and/or coercion of young people under the age of 18 into sexual activit ..read more

Health visitors and school nurses are often the primary health contact point for parents and carers of children aged between 0-19 years.  Together with other health professionals, they have a key role in providing advice or support for parents to allay fears or concerns about sepsis. Sepsis is a rare but serious potentially life threatening condition that can be triggered by an infection in any part of the body. Knowing when to get help is important as sepsis needs to be treated urgently. There are around 123,000 cases of sepsis a year in England.  Sepsis can be treated easily if cau ..read more

School Nurses play an important role in promoting healthy lifestyles and are well placed to influence and support positive behaviour change but we know as a small workforce for any enduring improvement a collaborative partnership approach has sustainability. We work closely and effectively with local partners and with them are continually thinking about different ways to engage young people and promote healthy lifestyles. Recently the Warwickshire School Health and Wellbeing Service (SHWBS) took part in an exciting project with local partners to encourage and establish new breakfast and physic ..read more

As public health nurses working with children, young people and families we know being active improves physical, emotional and social wellbeing and often talk about the benefits of being active and the need to improve physical activity.  We aim to signpost professionals to new guidance and to resources, for example CMO guidance and Change4Life The 456 model and #allourhealth really emphasise the value of physical activity and how professionals can influence children, young people and families at an individual, community and population level to become more active.       &n ..read more

School nurses have a unique position of trust with young people and can be one of the professionals that young people turn to when they are working through their sexual orientation or gender identity and finding their identity. Stonewall’s School Survey (2017) showed that although things have improved since 2012 there is still a long way to go: Nearly half (45%) of LGB, and 64% of Trans, pupils still face bullying at school for being LGBT Nearly one in ten trans pupils (9%) are subjected to death threats at school Almost half of LGBT pupils (45%) who are bullied for being LGBT never tell anyo ..read more