School Nursing Service

Society is changing and so are the needs of children and young people. In 2018 The Scottish Government has refocused the roles of School Nurses in Scotland to support its goal of making Scotland the best place to grow up. School nurses will focus on young people who face additional challenges according to 10 key areas which the Scottish Government has identified.

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The 10 key areas that school nurses will focus on are:

• Emotional Health and Wellbeing
• Substance Misuse
• Child Protection
• Domestic Abuse
• Looked after children
• Homelessness
• Youth Justice
• Young Carers
• Sexual Health
• Transitions

Our teams are made up of:

• School Nurse Team Leaders- (Registered Nurses who have then studied to complete a specialist qualification in school nursing)- provide leadership and guidance to the school nursing teams.
• School Nurses (Registered Nurses who have then studied to complete a specialist qualification in school nursing) – these nurses lead cluster teams and support children and young people around the 10 key areas.
• School Nurses Trainees (Registered Nurses who are currently studying to complete a specialist qualification in school nursing) support children and young people around the 10 key areas with practice supervisor (School nurse) and practice assessor (Practice Educator) facilitating practical and theoretical learning opportunities.
• Practice Educators (Registered Nurses who have then studied to complete a specialist qualification in school nursing and practice education) facilitate teaching and development opportunities for trainee school nurses.

Monday – Friday office hours (excluding public holidays)

The school nursing team are based in GP practices and other community sites across Dundee, Angus, Perth and Kinross.

Dundee - East Day home, Kingcross Hospital, Dundee
Angus North - Whitehill's Community Care Centre, Forfar and Links Health Centre, Montrose
Angus South - Abby Health Centre, Arbroath.
Perth City - Drumhar Health Centre, Perth
North Perthshire - Coupar Angus Medical Centre, Coupar Angus and Craigvinean Surgery, Dunkeld
South Perthshire - Crieff Medical Centre, Crieff and St Margaret’s Health Centre, Auchterarder
Kinross- Lochleven Health Centre, Kinross

School nurses work in smaller cluster teams to support children and young people in their allocated school area.

• if you are a child or young person – you can speak to your teacher or guidance teacher to talk through if a referral to a school nurse might help; or you can talk to your GP; or talk to your parent or carer who can link with all these people too.
• If you are a parent or carer – you can speak to your school or guidance teacher or GP to talk through if a referral to a school nurse might help.
• If you are an education, social work or health professional – you can submit a referral form, via our secure email system.

School nurses can be contacted by leaving a voicemail message on the following phone numbers:-

• Perth & Kinross Team Generic Voicemail  - 01738 564228
• Dundee Team Generic Voicemail  - 01382 496752/ EXT 36752
• Angus Team Generic Voicemail - 01241 430303

Please note, voice mail messages are checked once daily and a school nurse will respond to voicemail messages at the earliest opportunity. Please note this is not an emergency service.

For Out of Hours please contact NHS 24 - on 111

Discussions with the School Nurse Service remain confidential, which means they will not talk to other people about what has been shared, without permission. Where there is a safety risk to a child or young person, information will be shared with relevant services to allow the appropriate support to be implemented. Wherever possible this will be discussed with the child, young person or family first. Young people over 12 years are able to see the School Nurse without parental consent, although we would encourage them to discuss health issues with their parents. Children under 12 years of age require parental consent to be seen by the School Nurse Service.