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School Public Health Update October 2019

This update covers Single Point of Access, Whole School Approach and Resilience Toolkit, Screening and NCMP, The Lancaster Model, Partnership agreements, ChatHealth, GDPR and DBS.

The School Public Health Team hope you have settled back into school life after the summer holiday and would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the new academic year. We would like to say thank you for all your support over the last year and we are looking forward to working in partnership with you in the coming year to help improve the health and wellbeing of your students.

Exciting news about our Single Point of Access:

SPA will be moving to new premises on 11 November 2019; however we expect a smooth transition and this should not affect you referring to our service as our website address, telephone number and email address will be remaining the same. SPA accepts referrals from parents, young people and professionals for general and emotional health concerns. To reassure you that your referrals are managed effectively, please be aware that the referrals for emotional health are screened within twenty four hours and if they meet the agreed criteria will be accepted for an intervention with one of the following teams; School Public Health, Targeted Emotional Health and Wellbeing or Children and Young People Mental Health Services (CYPMHS). You do not need to worry about which service you require as this is managed between the three services on a daily basis; all you need to do is complete the simple online referral form which is available on the Kent Youth Health website

Phone number: 0300 123 44 96
Email: nem-tr.kentchildrenandyoungpeoplehealthservices@nhs.net

Whole School Approach and Resilience Toolkit

One of our priorities in the coming year is to develop a whole school approach to health and wellbeing. This approach is about developing a positive ethos and culture in schools and the wider community where everyone feels included. With increasing concern about the number of children affected by mental health issues, currently reported as 1 in 10 children, we are confident that this approach alongside the resilience toolkit will help to improve students’ social and emotional learning. Our ambition is for all schools to have access to the toolkit at a whole school level and embed resilience within a whole school community to create an improved school experience for all young people. We will be piloting a new post in the South Team for a School Liaison Officer for School Public Health to support the delivery of the approach with a view to evaluate this in the New Year.

Screening and NCMP

The Child Measurement Programme for Year R and Year 6 pupils is already underway. The team of Public Health Assistants will be visiting between now and the end of December to weigh and measure the children and we will be producing letters for all parents which will be posted home. Following completion of the measurements we can offer support about healthy lifestyles including diet and exercise with the aim of improving their health and wellbeing for the future.

If you do not already have the date booked, our Schedule Coordinator will be in touch in the next few weeks to arrange dates with you for the coming academic year.

The Lancaster Model - TLM

We are now in our third year of delivering The Lancaster Model. This is our online health, wellbeing and lifestyle review questionnaire offered to Year R, 6, 10 and 12 students. The aim of TLM is to promote healthier lifestyles, assess risk and understand the health profiles of school populations. It enables us to develop health profiles for the school using anonymised data to help support school health plans. It can also be used to assess individual health needs and support pupils with improving their health, wellbeing, lifestyles and behaviour by encouraging resilience and stability through the early identification of public health needs.

As you may be aware we started the programme early this year by offering the Year R parents the opportunity to complete the questionnaire before their children started school. So far we have had an excellent uptake, already reaching over 5500 parents to offer proactive preventative health support. The team will be checking in with you soon to book dates for the Year 6 pupils to complete the questionnaire. This is an amazing opportunity to hear the child’s voice about their own health and for us to work together to support their smooth transition to Secondary school, promote their health and wellbeing and support resilience.

Partnership agreements

The teams will be arranging to come out and see you over the next few weeks to sign your new partnership agreement. As many of you may know the agreements are filled with interesting information, timelines for activities and a breakdown of what you can expect from us as a service and the reciprocal arrangement from schools. This is an excellent opportunity to agree how we can support you and your students by working together.

ChatHealth

Our confidential texting service is available for 11 to 19 year olds and provides an opportunity for young people to access support directly from the School Public Health Service. A qualified practitioner will be available from Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5pm hours to manage the texts. We have already received 77 messages for the month of September from young people through ChatHealth. The main themes of these messages have been related to emotional well-being including anxiety and stress. Please encourage your students to text us on 07520 618850.

GDPR

We have recently had some very valuable conversations in school regarding GDPR and would welcome your support to ensure that information is shared in accordance with the new guidance. You may have already seen the letter from Public Health England in our Partnership agreements, however to summarise the main themes we would like to reassure you that there was no change needed to the current ways in which children’s personal information is used and shared for the school health data collections to be lawful under the GDPR. The lawful basis under the GDPR for the height and weight measurements, dental surveys and vaccinations of children in Primary schools is not provided by consent - it is provided by varying combinations of ‘compliance with a legal obligation’, ‘exercise of official authority’, ‘medical diagnosis or the provision of health care or treatment’, and ‘public interest in the area of public health’. However, parents or persons with parental responsibility must still be provided with the opportunity to withdraw their children from the height and weight measurements. Their written agreement must also be obtained for children to be vaccinated in primary schools.

DBS

We would like to assure you that Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust HR Department obtains the following checks for all centrally employed staff who may as part of their jobs have unsupervised contact with children and young people on a regular basis:

  • Enhanced DBS disclosure with barred list check
  • Two References
  • Medical Clearance
  • Eligibility to work in the UK.

Employees of the KCHFT School Public Health Service do not commence employment in posts with regular unsupervised contact with children until all satisfactory clearances have been received. All relevant KCHFT employees including the School Public Health Team and Immunisation Team are issued with photo identification badges and will show these upon their visit to your school.

Finally, the School Public Health Service would like to thank our partners in education for their continued support to our service delivery. We look forward to working with you all this year.