Figures released from the NHS workforce statistics show that the number of school nurses has fallen by 13 per cent since 2010 – with just 2,606 left in NHS employment.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned that the lack of school nurses is a danger because of the vital role they play in delivering sex and relationships education (SRE) as part of PSHE in schools.
Without a school nurse to support effective SRE, the RCN is worried that too many children are missing out or receiving poor-quality lessons.
Figures from May 2015 showed that there are 1,186 fully qualified schools nurses catering for the 8.4 million pupils in England. There were also 1,867 health professionals working in school nursing roles – a total of 3,053. At the time, the RCN raised fears that many local authorities were considering further cuts to school nurse funding to plug budget gaps in other areas of public health.
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