Two years since the introduction of the statutory duty for schools to support pupils with medical conditions, a report from the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) has renewed warnings about the lack of school nurses in the system.
The publication – entitled Nursing in Schools – looked at the confidence of school nurses in managing five highly prevalent long-term conditions: asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, anaphylaxis and eczema.
School nurses reported confidence in tackling four of the five conditions (with the exception of diabetes – see later on). However, 90 per cent raised concerns about high caseloads and limited time and resources.
It comes after the NHS workforce statistics released earlier this month revealed that the number of school nurses has fallen by 13 per cent since 2010 – with just 2,606 left in NHS employment.
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