SchoolScreener

03/11/2025

“Children are struggling — let school nursing help.”
That’s the message from the Local Government Association last year.

School nurses are often the first line of defence in spotting signs of anxiety, eating disorders, or self-harm. Yet with shrinking teams, they’re asked to do more with less.
Integrating school nursing into local mental-health plans could make a huge difference - ensuring that prevention, early help and clinical support all connect seamlessly.
As digital tools and data insights evolve, the opportunity to identify patterns and intervene early has never been greater.
Have you got any thoughts on how your local system could better link school nursing and mental health support?

27/10/2025

Not all progress makes the headlines. But some areas are quietly reimagining how school nursing works.
In July, Enfield Council and NHS partners rolled out a new model giving every secondary school direct access to a named school nurse.
The team offers lunchtime drop-in clinics, health advice, and even trains school staff to manage asthma and anaphylaxis safely.
It’s a small change with big impact: faster support, earlier intervention, and stronger relationships between nurses, schools, and families.
Do you see scope for this “open access” model to work elsewhere? Or is it too resource-intensive for most areas?

20/10/2025

The NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan promises to expand the nursing workforce. But, will it reach community and school health services?
School nursing is part of the universal 5–19 Healthy Child Programme, yet too often it’s the “forgotten branch” of nursing. And without targeted investment, growing hospital numbers won’t translate into stronger early-intervention capacity.
Digital transformation and smarter workflows can help, but they are not a permanent solution. They can’t fill workforce gaps alone.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that we need strategy, visibility and recognition for school nursing’s role in prevention and safeguarding. Do you have any thoughts on what meaningful investment in school nursing would look like in your area? What changes would you invite?

13/10/2025

What would it take to ensure a school nurse in every school?

It’s been around a year now since the most recent SAPHNA report highlighted a worrying reality: school nurse numbers in England have fallen by around a third since 2009, with 82% of nurses saying there simply aren’t enough staff to deliver the care children need.
The report, presented in Parliament this summer, urges renewed investment in universal school nursing to protect children’s health and wellbeing.
At a time when demand is rising - from complex health needs to mental wellbeing - the system can’t afford to stretch further.

What’s your view - should every school have a named nurse, or is a locality-based model more sustainable?

08/10/2025

We often say that school nurses are superheroes... well, if that's true, then paper is kryptonite.

Inefficient, costly, and error-prone, paper continues to slow down public health processes.

Instead of delivering life-changing interventions, school nursing teams are spending hundreds, if not thousands, of hours collecting, sorting, reading and filing paper forms. Or else, printing letters, and chasing up children who have long lost the consent form from several weeks ago.

This is where digital systems come in. Especially with activities like the NCMP or Health Needs Assessments, the paper burden is a real... burden. It slows down teams. It increases the risk of transcription errors because of re-keying data.

If any of this is ringing true for you or your team, have a quick look at the image attached to this post.

We are SchoolScreener: we create tools for school nursing teams. We can help.

07/10/2025

A new Bill could soon redefine how schools approach wellbeing and safeguarding.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (2025) aims to embed children’s welfare more deeply into education policy, strengthening requirements around mental health, safety and pastoral care.
If passed, it could create stronger expectations on schools to engage with public-health professionals, including school nurses. That’s not only an opportunity for collaboration - but also a call for readiness.
How will services ensure capacity, data systems and partnerships are in place to deliver? And how about for you, and your team? Do you see this as a chance to elevate school nursing - or another policy without the funding to match?

01/10/2025

Children and young people can present in so many different ways if they cannot hear. Some only have difficulties with some voices and not others.
Read more in this article by Dr Sebastian Hendricks for Family Friendly Working. https://zurl.co/RhKyx

By Dr Sebastian Hendricks, Thomson Screening.  It is important for parents and teachers to look out for signs of possible hearing problems in children. The sooner advice is the sought, the quicker appropriate action can be taken. To illustrate this, here is Jordan’s story.  Case study  Jordan w...

26/09/2025

The next decade will be decisive for school health services.
On one side: growing demand. Rising rates of myopia, increasing emotional health needs, a backlog of interventions delayed during the pandemic.
On the other: a workforce under strain, and budgets that aren’t keeping pace.

We can’t keep scaling services the way we always have. Something has to give.

So what might a digital-first Healthy Child Programme look like in 2035? Well, it could look like...
.. Parents engaging with services through a secure, multilingual portal, not paper slips.. Screening data flowing instantly into child health systems: no double entry, no errors.. Dashboards that let commissioners see outcomes across entire regions, in real time.. Nurses freed up from admin to focus entirely on clinical care and support

That future isn’t about replacing people. It’s about protecting them.
The only way to make school nursing sustainable is to rethink how it’s delivered.

What would a digital-first service look like to you?

24/09/2025

Thomson Screening is proud to support the . Hearing is a precious gift, and screening for hearing problems and doing everything we can to protect our own and our children’s hearing, is so important. https://zurl.co/XulUc

Make Listening Safe Campaign UK Avoidable hearing loss amongst those with ‘normal hearing' is a rapidly growing global problem. In 2015 The World Health Organisation (WHO) published a report [ which forecast that 1.1 billion people are at risk of experiencing permanent, avoidable hearing damage i...

19/09/2025

School nursing is one of the most quietly powerful forces in public health.
From eyesight to emotional wellbeing, from vaccinations to growth checks - the Healthy Child Programme touches every child, every family, every school.

And yet, much of this work happens behind the scenes. It rarely makes headlines. But without it, thousands of children would miss out on early interventions that change the course of their lives.

At a time when demand is rising and resources are stretched, it’s worth remembering: school nursing isn’t just about health. It’s about equity. It’s about making sure every child has the same chance to thrive, no matter their background.

The Healthy Child Programme might not always be visible, but it’s vital.

17/09/2025

Villa Vision uses Thomson Screening’s SchoolScreener software for vision and colour vision screening which makes the process of screening a class of children more efficient and versatile, whilst keeping children engaged in the vision screening process. So far, over 6000 children have been screened by Villa Vision using the software.
Read more in this Birmingham World article. https://zurl.co/0QNPP

Even mild to moderate vision loss can have a massive impact on a child’s behaviour, welfare and learning outcomes, sometimes leading to a life of missed potential.

15/09/2025

The Healthy Child Programme is under growing pressure:

Caseloads are increasing

Budgets are tightening

Workforce capacity is stretched

At the same time, the public health need is rising. More children are presenting with vision issues, hearing loss, or emotional health concerns than ever before. WHO predicts that by 2050, half the world’s population will be short-sighted.

So how do we sustain universal screening and assessments in this climate?

It won’t be by asking staff to work harder. The workforce is already at its limit.
It won’t be by cutting services. The risks of missed early interventions are too high.

It has to be by rethinking delivery. By making every process more efficient, by ensuring no child is missed, and by unlocking data that can guide smarter interventions at scale.

This isn’t just about saving money; it’s about protecting the future of public health services for children.