School nurses 'undermined by high workload'

School nurses who worked in more than 10 schools were significantly less confident in their ability to provide support than nurses who worked in fewer than four schools, according to findings by the National Children's Bureau (NCB).

A total of 38 per cent of school nurses reported that they worked in more than 10 schools and 30 per cent reported that they worked in between five and nine schools.

The charity surveyed 344 school nurses, equivalent to around one in eight of the total number of school nurses working in England.

Nurses were asked to rate their confidence in caring for children with five common long-term health conditions - asthma, epilepsy, anaphylaxis, eczema and diabetes.

Only 42 per cent reported feeling confident supporting pupils with diabetes.

"Given the breadth of the school nurses' role and their involvement in many different aspects of health care, it is of vital importance that they feel confident supporting pupils with the various different conditions that they may be experiencing," the report states.

A total of 98 per cent of school nurses reported high caseloads, and 90 per cent reported limitations on their time as being a general challenge to carrying out their work.

A further 64 per cent said limited access to training was a challenge, the charity's report, Nursing in Schools, states.

Latest NHS statistics show that the number of school nurse posts has dropped by 13 per cent since 2010 to the current level of 2,606.

The NCB is calling on the Department of Health (DH) to work with Health Education England and local education and training boards to recruit and train more school nurses to meet the needs of an expanding role and a larger school population.

It states future research is needed to understand the extent and scope of the impact that school nurses can have in supporting pupils with the health conditions explored in this study.

Anna Feuchtwang, chief executive of the NCB, said the widening role of school nurses means government must ensure enough funding is provided to recruit and train enough school nurses to meet demand.

"The day-to-day work of school nurses is varied and vital," she said.

"Alongside their support of pupils with serious health conditions and disabilities, school nurses are increasingly called on to provide vital expertise on child protection, mental health, sex education and bullying.

"We need the DH to adequately fund local authorities' public health work, so they can recruit and train school nurses in sufficient numbers to ensure their unique contribution to the health of children is protected."

Anne Longfield, children's commissioner for England, said: "I welcome this report, which underlines the vital role that school nurses play supporting the health and wellbeing of children, including those with long-term conditions." 

Earlier this month, Longfield published a report stating that school nurses spend twice as much time on paperwork than on direct work with children, severely restricting their ability to identify and support vulnerable children.

"The findings echo my own recent research on school nurses," Longfield said.

"All too often face-to-face work, capacity to build trusting relationships and advise children was being compromised by paperwork and bureaucracy.

"The support that school nurses provide is highly valued by children and we need them to be available for help and advice as much as possible."