School Health

Or you can watch the East Sussex School Health for parents and carers video on our Vimeo channel.

School Health One Point

0300 123 4062
kentchft.esschoolhealthservice@nhs.net

Make an online School Health referral

 

• School Health One Point (SHOP) is our contact point for parents, carers and professionals
• Your call will be answered by an experienced administrator who will be able to take your details; if necessary a nurse can call you back.

Text your school nurse

If you need to speak to someone now, contact us by text using our confidential text messaging service for parents and carers of children of aged five to 19 years and also young people aged between 11 and 19 years.

Text 07507 332473

Who are we?

Your School Health Team is led by registered, qualified nurses who have a specialist community public health degree. The team consists of community staff nurses, community nursery nurses and assistant practitioners, health improvement staff, school nurse assistants and administrators. We work closely with a number of other services, including education, GPs, children’s integrated therapy services, paediatricians, the voluntary sector, youth services and East Sussex Children's Services.

All our staff who work within schools and with children, families and young people have enhanced disclosure and barring checks; we are committed to promoting the healthy development, resilience and welfare of all children and young people.

What we do

Our focus is on promoting the health and wellbeing of all school-aged children, striving to deliver the very best care that we can. We do this by completing a health assessment with you and your child to identify the most appropriate intervention and potential outcome and we will work with you to achieve this. Where we are unable to help, we will always signpost or refer you to a more suitable service.

Appointments

One of our admin team will contact you by letter or telephone to offer an appointment. This will be a remote appointment either by telephone or video call in the majority of cases. The appointment will last about 45 minutes so make sure you are prepared and comfortable. Here are some video call tips:

• make sure you have a quiet space in a well-lit room where you can talk openly and freely
• remove any distractions that might interrupt the session
• make sure your computer camera and sound work, check you have a good internet connection and check you have the meeting link.

If you are unable to attend the appointment please contact us at least 24 hours beforehand and we will re-book your appointment.

Find your local team

We are based in Polegate but we are a mobile service and work in schools and other venues throughout East Sussex. To contact us phone 0300 123 4062.

Chaucer Clinic, Polegate
Unit A4, Chaucer Business Park, Dittons Road, Polegate, East Sussex, BN26 6QH

Station Plaza Health Centre, Hastings
Devonshire Rd, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 1NH

Grove House, Crowborough
The Grove, Crowborough, East Sussex, TN6 1NY

How our school health teams work together

The School Health Service works in partnership with parents, children and young people to make sure pupil’s health needs are supported within their school and community. This includes all those attending a state school within East Sussex and children and young people who are electively home educated. We can support you and your child with their physical and emotional needs from the age of five until they are 19 years old.

Every child deserves the best start in life; our aim is to make sure that nothing gets in the way of your child’s development, so that they can achieve their full potential.

Text your school nurse

Across East Sussex we also offer a text service called Text Your School Nurse. This is a confidential text messaging service for parents and carers of children of aged five to 19 years and also young people aged between 11 and 19 years.

Your message will be answered by a school nurse Monday and Friday from 9am to 5pm, who will offer guidance on a range of health related problems or concerns. All of the issues discussed are confidential unless a child's safety, or that of others, is at risk.

Our school nurses will always encourage young people to discuss issues with their parents or carers.

The Text Your School Nurse number is 07507 332473.

Confidential suicide prevention advice

Are you, or is a young person you know, not coping with life? For confidential suicide prevention advice please visit www.papyrus-uk.org.