Special Edition Newsletter - Children and Young People

Welcome to this special edition of the Shropshire Health & Wellbeing E-News. This E-News has a focus upon the health and wellbeing of Children and Young People.

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Children’s Trust Area Forums

Shropshire’s Children’s Trust is a partnership of agencies and representatives of young people and parents.

The Children’s Trust area forums are important tools for communicating with partners about changes and updates to our services and objectives.

The autumn 2014 forums will be held:

• Monday 10th November 2014, 9am-12.30pm at Ellesmere Town Hall
• Tuesday 11th November 2014, 9am-12.30pm at Craven Arms Community Centre
• Tuesday 18th November 2014, 9am-12.30pm in the Council Chamber, Shirehall, Shrewsbury

There will be discussion and updates on the following topics:

• The School Nursing Programme
• The Family Nurse Partnership Programme
• How the Voluntary and Community Sector supports children in Shropshire

To confirm your attendance at the forums, please contact Hayley Barnett-Hook at Hayley.Barnett-Hook@Shropshire.gov.uk stating the date of the forum you wish to attend.

An agenda with more details will be available closer to the time for those who have booked a place.

To find out more about the Shropshire Children’s Trust, please visit: http://www.shropshiretogether.org.uk/childrens-trust/

School Nursing Team

The School Nursing team is undertaking a planned project aimed to improve the health and wellbeing of children in Shropshire and to raise the profile of the team.

Following the School Nursing partnership review with the local authority, the South School Nurses propose to develop a community clinic for parents to access the School Nurse for support. This clinic will be held at The Rocks Spring Community Centre in Ludlow.

It is hoped that this venture will increase the accessibility and visibility of the School Nursing service. Utilising a central hub rather than an individual school ensures equity of access across 12 primary schools within the Ludlow locality. Initially the pilot clinic will be held once a month on a Thursday. After a trial period, this will be reviewed and evaluated.

To identify local need and encourage uptake from parents, the School Nursing team have produced a short online survey. It is anticipated that local head teachers will include a link to this online survey in the school newsletters in early November 2014. Parents and Guardians of children attending schools in South Shropshire are encouraged to complete the survey. Please follow this link: http://www.shropscommunityhealth.nhs.uk/content/page/22196/ludlowparentsurvey.htm 

Feedback will be utilised to tailor the clinics to meet parents’ and children’s needs, and data used to act as a bench mark for evaluation. Depending on the pilot’s success, the clinic may be rolled out to other areas of the county.

The School nursing Team will continue to keep the public and professionals updated with regard to the pilot. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please contact Helen Godding: helen.godding@nhs.net or call the Ludlow team on 07896 812233.

De-stress day for young people

On Saturday 8th November, 11am-3pm, Shropshire Members of Youth Parliament (MYP) will be running an event aimed to support young people to manage stress. The event will be held at the Grange Youth Centre in Shrewsbury and is for young people aged 10-24 years old.

On the day, there will be opportunities to learn about stress; what causes it and how it can make you feel, but more importantly the event will give practical ideas for how to de-stress. The event will be a great opportunity to meet new people and to have fun. There will be music, art, relaxation and cooking, as well as greyhound dog walking and even Morris dancing!

For more information and to book your place, please contact Lorraine Warrender on 07990 087001 or Lorraine.Warrender@shropshire.gov.uk

Winter flu vaccine pilot for children in years 7 and 8

Shropshire and Staffordshire secondary schools are taking part in a national pilot for the children’s flu vaccine. Over winter 2014-2015 secondary school pupils in Years 7 and 8 will be offered the free flu vaccination, administered by the immunisation facilitation team. The vaccination is given by nasal spray, making it safe, simple and painless. Children in Shropshire will be some of the first to benefit from the vaccination before it is introduced nationally.

To find out more information about the pilot, please contact your secondary school or view this online leaflet: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/330282/PHE_8879_Flu_2014_DL_10_.pdf

Family Nurse Partnership

What is the Family Nurse Partnership?

The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) is a voluntary home visiting programme for first time mothers aged 19 and under. A specially trained family nurse visits the young mum (and dad) regularly from early in pregnancy up until the child is 2 years of age.

The aim of the Family Nurse Partnership is to enable young mums to:

•  Have a healthy pregnancy
•  Improve their child’s health and development
•  Plan their own futures and achieve their aspirations

The FNP is underpinned by a robust evidence base which has shown that it can improve health, social and educational outcomes in the short, medium and long term.

Family Nurse Partnership in Shropshire

FNP was launched in Shropshire on 6th October 2014. The team which consists of a Supervisor, five family nurses and an administrator are based at the Sure Start Children’s Centre in Crowmoor and aim to provide the service to young parents 19 and under in the Shrewsbury and Atcham and surrounding areas.

Referrals will be taken predominantly from midwives early in pregnancy.

For further information on Family Nurse Partnership then please visit the website http://www.fnp.nhs.uk/

Or contact the Family Nurse Partnership Team on 01743 249133.

‘You’re Welcome’ Accreditation for Shropshire GP Practices

Two Shropshire GP practices have now attained accreditation for the Department of Health’s ‘You’re Welcome’ guidelines. Albrighton Medical Practice and Pontesbury Medical Practice have achieved the criteria which involves self-assessment of patient experience and health outcomes for young people. To gain accreditation, services need to prove that they are young people friendly.

‘You’re Welcome’ provides good practice guidance based upon local practice and evidence and seeks to improve experiences for young people. Practices need to find a way to improve:

•  Accessibility of services
• Delivery of preventable approaches
•  Young people’s ability to be actively involved in their own care

Services needed to look at 8 key criteria, which include:

• Confidentiality
• Attitudes and values
• Environment
• Young People’s involvement in monitoring and evaluation of patient experience

Work for Albrighton Medical Practice and Pontesbury Medical Practice has included:

• The creation and analysis of a teenage patient’s questionnaire to survey the patient experience and make recommendations for change.
• The creation of a specific Teenage Patient Noticeboard.  This contains rotating health information for young people with seasonal campaigns and has permanent sources of further help displayed such as Brook (sexual health) B-eat (eating disorders), Change4life, FRANK and beat-bullying.

Public Health will be working with more Shropshire GP Practices over the coming year. For more information about ‘You’re Welcome’, please contact Val Cross val.cross@shropshire.gov.uk or on 01743 253943.

Support Ben to make Shropshire a healthier and happier place

Ben Sutton-Jones, Shropshire Health Champion, has organised a weekly walk/run group to encourage young people with physical and learning difficulties to take part in exercise. The group meet each Saturday morning (8:45am) at the Dingle in The Quarry, Shrewsbury.

The project has been set up to support young people who find it difficult to exercise to take part in a group event and to encourage them to start a more active lifestyle.

Everyone is invited to come to take part and to walk or run up to 5 laps of the Dingle.

Ben attended Severndale School and is now a pupil at Shrewsbury College. Click here for more information: http://www.shrewsbury.ac.uk/news/14/08/student_sets_up_exercise_group_to_champion_people_with_disabilities 

Health and Wellbeing Board - Next Meeting:

The next public Health and Wellbeing Board meeting will be held on Friday 21st November, 9.30am.

The agenda and relevant papers will become available on the Health and Wellbeing webpage prior to the meeting. Please see the attached link below to access previous meetings agendas:

Health and Wellbeing Board