Case studies

The challenge of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions have led to an innovative approach to children’s mental health from school nurses in Northamptonshire.

Leicestershire’s school nursing service has set up a text messaging service for secondary school pupils. It has helped the service engage hard-to-reach groups with pupils reporting it makes them feel more comfortable discussing sensitive issues.

Like all areas, Swindon has a well-established range of support for children identified as overweight or obese during NCMP. The school nursing service will offer families an appointment to discuss concerns, give diet and physical activity advice and can refer them on to healthy weight programmes. This case study forms part of our resource on the National Child Measurement Programme.

While oral health in Suffolk is generally good, just over 18 per cent of five-year-olds already have dental decay and in some parts of the county nearly a quarter have one or more decayed teeth.

Like many areas, Solihull has a comprehensive support programme in place for children identified as overweight and obese through NCMP. But with over 18 per cent of local children with overweight or with obesity in reception year, the programme has also prompted the council to start considering what can be done to support children pre-school. This case study forms part of our resource on the National Child Measurement Programme.

Children in Lancashire and Cumbria have poorer dental health compared to children in other parts of England. The Smile4Life programme was developed in partnership with local authorities to address this problem.

Like all areas, the results are fed back to schools via email and hard copies sent through the post. But two years ago the council decided to do more to link it in with the healthy weight programmes they were beginning to run.

Young people have been encouraged to express their thoughts, feelings and experiences on topics relating to mental health via the MindMate blog.

In north Manchester clinical commissioning group funding has supplemented investment by the council to create a network of breastfeeding support for new mothers.

The school nurse team in Sefton helped children spot the signs of worry, and how to build resilience.