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Ed Balls promises to see school nurses in action

15th October 2009

Children, schools and families secretary, Ed Balls today (Thursday, 15 October) heard concerns that a key government policy on school nurses would not be met by its target date of 2010.

Schools nurses expressed their fears that there were not enough of them to carry out the government’s family-friendly policies when Ed Balls addressed the Unite/Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA) annual conference in Southport.

Ed Balls promised delegates to visit the north east to see school nurses in action on the frontline, after hearing that some of them had cases of more than 6,000 children each.

According to the NHS’s own statistics, another 2,000 school nurses need to be employed in England by 2010 to achieve the goal of one specialist school nurse for the more than 3,000 secondary schools in England and their cluster of primary schools.

Karen Reay, Unite national officer for health, said: "We warmly welcome Ed Balls’ clear commitment to school nursing and his desire to take up Unite’s invitation to visit school nurses in the North East to see what they do during their busy working day.

"For the first time, we have had two cabinet ministers – Ed Balls today and health secretary, Andy Burnham yesterday – who recognised the need for joined-up preventative public health polices to benefit families.

"Both ministers stated publicly their commitment for a universal service for both health visiting and schools nursing – this is a first. We want to work with them in the coming months to help achieve these goals."
 
The latest NHS workforce statistics, based on September 2008 figures, revealed that there were 1,062 full-time equivalent (FTE) school nurses in England – an increase of 169 (FTEs) on the previous year. There are an estimated 7.3 million school-aged children in England.

Unite/CPHVA welcomes the government’s public health targets, such as the cervical cancer immunisation for teenage girls – but this can only be achieved by having the right number of properly trained health professionals delivering these services in communities across the country.

ENDS