Fall in number of school nurses as student population increases

A report from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) also warns that the number of health visitors – who work with children aged 0 to 5 and their families – has fallen by around 1,000 since 2015.

Health visitors and school nurses have a key role in schools promoting healthy mental and physical development and working on safeguarding issues.

However, the RCN says that since the responsibility for health visiting services was transferred from the NHS to local authorities, they have been hit by £200 million cuts to public health funding.

The report says, for example, that of planned reductions in public health funding in 2016/17, 14 per cent of the total local authority cuts fell on children’s and young people’s health services. It means that existing services are becoming more stretched, with the report pointing to evidence from the National Children’s Bureau showing that a third of school nurses are now working across 13 or more schools.