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NHS

Spotlights:
School Nursing

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ChatHealth

ChatHealth is an award-winning messaging service used by more than 60% of School Nursing services in England, Northern Ireland and Wales to offer safe and secure messaging as one of the ways to contact local school nurses.

This makes it possible for around 2.8 million young people (aged 11-19) and the parents and carers of over 2 million school-aged children to easily send a message to get confidential help and advice about a range of health and wellbeing issues.

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School nurses are using ChatHealth to:

  • make it easier and less embarrassing for young people to reach out for help
  • offer more choice of access
  • engage and connect with more young people using existing resource

Number of Contacts

9,055

messaging conversations took place between young people and school nurses in 2021-2022

Top Reasons for Contact

  • Emotional health and wellbeing
  • Sexual health and relationships
  • Physical health

Busiest Times for Contact

On Mondays
between 15:00 – 16:00

Service User Experience

83%

of young people who used ChatHealth in 2021-2022 said their conversation helped them

What Young People Say:

“It has made me feel more at ease. I feel like I can easily talk about the way I feel and not be judged.”

What School Nurses Say:

“Many young people seem to find it easier to text rather than call or speak face to face.”

School nurses offer ChatHealth for parents and carers of school-aged children to:

  • deliver a convenient way for families to get help
  • reduce inequalities in accessing services
  • increase return on investment into digital ways of working

Number of Contacts

1,339

messaging conversations with parents and carers of 5-19 year olds

Number of Contacts

31,976

messaging conversations with parents and carers of 0-19 year olds

Top Reasons for Contact

  • Emotional health & wellbeing
  • General health
  • Parenting advice and support

Busiest Times for Contact

On Thursdays
between 9:00 – 11:00

Service User Experience

86%

of parents and carers of school-aged children who used ChatHealth said their conversation helped them .

What Parents Say

“To reach someone easily and get a response so fast is really reassuring. I thought I would need a long wait to speak to anyone. “

What School Nurses Say

“ChatHealth allows those who don’t regularly engage with our services to reach us when they require support.”

What School Nurses Say

“Parents that are unlikely to contact us by phone do contact us via ChatHealth, such as some younger parents and those struggling with anxiety or other mental health issues.”

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HealthWebsites

Kids, teens and parents are getting age-appropriate health and wellbeing advice and support from our market-leading health promotion websites – Health for Kids and Health for Teens.

We are working with 15 NHS partners to increase the online presence of their public health nursing teams by launching their own Local Areas alongside nationally-targeted content. This provides localised information on health advice, news and events and signposts to support services in their area.

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Health for KidsHealth for kids! is a fun website for primary-school aged children to learn about their health. It’s packed full of fun characters, interactive articles and exciting games to play.

In the Grownups areas, parents and carers of children aged 5-11, can get health information and advice to help keep their child healthy and happy. Local Area content adds value to help grownups find information about local health services, news and events near them.

Local Areas on Health for Kids are available for: 

  • Brighton & Hove and West Sussex (new in 2021-2022)
  • Coventry
  • Hampshire
  • Hertfordshire
  • Leicestershire & Rutland
  • Nottinghamshire
  • Plymouth
  • Sandwell
  • Shropshire
  • Solihull
  • Walsall

Number of Local Areas

12

Local Areas delivered by NHS partners

 

(as of March 2022)

Most Visited Pages

  1. Game: Poop Shooter
  2. Game: Shine Time
  3. Game: Micro Doctor

(in 2021-2022)

Service User Experience

82%

of Health for Kids visitors said the information helped them in 2021-2022

What Kids Say

“I like the Health for Kids website because it has fun games and teaches me how to be healthy.”

Health for TeensHealth for teens is a website for young people aged 11-19 about everything they want to know about health. It features bite-sized information on a range of physical and emotional health topics, with engaging and interactive content such as movie clips, audio snippets and quizzes.

The ‘Your Area’ section brings local information for teenagers, including advice articles, events and helps them to find the right local support services they may need.

Local Areas on Health for Teens are available for:

  • Brighton & Hove and West Sussex (new in 2021-2022)
  • Coventry
  • Hampshire
  • Hertfordshire
  • Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland
  • Manchester
  • Nottinghamshire
  • Plymouth
  • Sandwell
  • Shropshire
  • Solihull
  • Staffordshire & Stoke
  • Walsall

 

Number of Local Areas

14

Local Areas delivered by NHS partners

 

(as of March 2022)

Most Visited Pages

  1. Article: 7 Most Common Medical Emergencies
  2. Quiz: How Emotionally Healthy Are You?
  3. Quiz: What Kind of Friend Are You?

(in 2021-2022)

Service User Experience

74%

Health for Teens visitors said the information helped them in 2021-2022

What Young People Say

“The quizzes on the Health for Teens website are a really entertaining way to get information across to teens.”

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HealthForms

HealthForms is an online health needs assessment tool for improving service user outcomes.

In 2021-2022, we supported the roll out of HealthForms questionnaires by forward-thinking school nursing teams at NHS Trusts in various areas across England, including Shropshire, Coventry, Solihull, Nottinghamshire and Plymouth.

The school health questionnaires are intended to be completed by parents and carers of children starting school in the Reception year (EYFS) and by young people transitioning to or at Secondary School, according to how it’s locally commissioned.

In recent evaluation of the online health and wellbeing screening programme in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, it was found that young people and professional stakeholders respond positively to digital health contacts. For more information about the research, look at this infographic and watch this video.

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HealthForms is used by school nursing teams to digitise school health questionnaire processes to:

  • Provide an efficient and paper-free way to assess health needs
  • Allow sensitive information to be disclosed confidentially
  • Promote health information and local support services

Number of Responses

11,280

questionnaire responses received in 2021-2022

Number of Questionnaires

14

questionnaire forms created for use in schools in 2021-2022

What Commissioners Say

“It has managed to pick up some quite complex needs and cases. Without that contact, those cases might not have been picked up.”

What Schools Say

“The relationship that we’ve had between our school nurse service and us as a school has improved through this process.”

Evidence

Go to the NIHR website to find research to evaluate digital health contacts and published journal papers

What School Nurses Say

“I’ve picked up children that have had no support in the past, not even told their parents, schools or anybody. So, we are picking up young people that otherwise would have continued to escalate further.”

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