HHFT Children's Community Nursing Team

The HHFT Community Children’s Nursing Team delivers nursing care and support to children, young people and families; the community children’s nurse (CCN) will assess, plan, implement and evaluate your child or young person’s care within the community setting. The CCNT liaise with GP’s and hospital paediatric settings to reduce hospital admissions’ and support early discharge. Educate children, young people and families to promote independence and self care provide expert advice and facilitating discharge planning for children with acute and continuing health needs. The CCN when appropriate will undertake the key worker role, contributing to the assessment of health needs and monitor the effectiveness of care packages. In partnership with families and carers we work in a multidisciplinary team liaising with health visitors, school nurses, special school nurses, GP’s, hospital doctors, specialist nurses, respite units, as well as social workers, education staff and the voluntary sector. Enable families to care for the dying child in their preferred place of choice through expert symptom management knowledge. The team employs a health social worker who can support families, carers and signpost to the most relevant support and specialist services. Both teams are available 7 days a week from 8am – 6pm 365 days of the year. Between 6pm – 8am the CCNT on call mobile telephone is transferred to the paediatric acute unit ensuring that any concerns that families have are discussed with senior paediatric nurses who can then contact the paediatric doctors if necessary.

We provide community nursing services for babies, children and young people up to the age of 19. Some 16-19 year olds will be referred to adult services where appropriate. Children and young people with a chronic or complex long term health condition we prefer that they are under the care of a local paediatrician and or the medical team at regional or national hospitals. In our experience this will ensure optimal communication and better co-ordination of complex care pathways.

To access the CCNT the child will require a referral from their GP, Consultant or other health care professional. It is helpful if the referral contains as much information as possible; the referral can be by letter or by means of a specific referral form. We do not have a waiting list for your initial consultation but will prioritorise the workload according to the availability of staff. For example, you might be asked on occasion to bring your child to the local paediatric assessment unit for example a treatment, intravenous antibiotics or re passing of a naso- gastric tube. The Community children’s nursing services are provided by the NHS so there is no charge. The team will provide additional training to facilitate your child’s care but will charge for this service.

Our CCN teams are based at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester. The CCNT contributes to clinics run at the Andover War Memorial Hospital, Eastleigh, Alton Community Hospital and Chase Hospital Bordon. Children and young people will usually be seen at home or at alternative places of care for example child minders, relatives, nurseries, hospitals and health centres. Children and young people may also be seen in mainstream and special schools if this is practical and acceptable to families and school staff. The geographical area that we cover is the North and Central area of Hampshire.

All referrals to our service are looked at by a senior CCN and usually discussed by the team. If further information is required for a decision to be made then we will contact the referring professional for this. Very occasionally we may decide that another service is more appropriate to meet your child’s needs, in this case we will advise the referrer of our decision.

Your first contact with the CCNT will usually be face to face and a two –way discussion. Both your and your child’s concerns, opinions and beliefs will be sought as part of the consultation. All CCN’s have a mobile telephone and both CCNT’s have an on call CCN telephone number which you can contact, If your first language is not English then you must inform us of this before the appointment so that an interpreter can be present. If you or your child uses a specific communication system please let us know so that we can liaise with the Speech and Language Therapy service to provide support during the appointment. Copies of any nursing assessments and care plans will be left in the home, the CCNT will document any care in shared care books from regional or national hospitals. We may ask for your permission to share any assessment report’s with the other relevant professionals who work with your child. We have a wide variety of leaflets and links that we will provide you with after the consultation if this is relevant to your child’s needs. You may be asked to contribute to our service feedback surveys during your visit to us so that we can continue to improve our services.

We visit families at home and in their usual community settings.

Our staff have experience assessing and treating children with a range of disabilities. All CCN’s have a professional child health nursing qualification additionally team members have the Specialist Community Children’s Nursing degree qualification. All staff are DBS checked and undergo Safeguarding children training. All the team have regular mandatory training which is run through by the Trust. They have regular supervision and appraisals which include a personal development plan. Many are affiliated to specialist interest group e.g. the regional cystic fibrosis network, diabetes, oncology and continuing health care. All staff participate in in-service training and have developed competencies. Courses and conferences appropriate to service needs are accessed using training funding which is applied for each year.

Recruitment process: Staff are interviewed for the posts within the service and pre-employment checks are carried out including reference collection, occupational health survey, DBS checks and professional registration checks. To maintain registration on the NMC register staff have to demonstrate on-going continual professional development. Staff members undergo a broad programme of mandatory and statutory training on an annual basis. They are given regular supervision by senior team members and have annual appraisals which include a personal development plan. Staff members are supported by the wider multidisciplinary team and access multidisciplinary training within the hospital. As a team, service and Trust we are governed by standards of Governance and subject to regular inspections by CQC, Monitor and other regulatory bodies. Some of these inspections are unannounced. Risk assessments are carried out annually on venues in which clinics and services are provided to ensure the buildings are safe and fit for purpose. There is a rigorous incident reporting system and investigations take place into any incident or near miss with actions taken on identified outcomes to ensure on going safety of all accessing and using the service.

If you are concerned that your child has a problem and you think that it may be helped by our service discuss this with your GP, health visitor or hospital consultant who can advise and make a referral if appropriate.