Children's nursing (CCN) service

Key objectives

  • Provide direct nursing care to children at home, thus minimising hospitalisation where appropriate;
  • Provide child specific advice within educational or residential facilities;
  • Teach parents, teachers and other carers to provide care and treatment to specific children through a comprehensive competency framework;
  • Monitor a child’s progress and liaise with medical and other allied health professionals as necessary.

The nursing staff are assisted by a team of support carers who may care for a named child/children either in the home or school environment. The support carers are trained by the nursing staff within the CCN team.

The CCN teams work closely with the Education and Library Boards to ascertain the health needs of children in special and mainstream schools. Where applicable, the teams provide training and information to teachers and classroom assistants for children with specific health needs. For more information see here.

Workforce planning, education and development

  • Effective, robust workforce planning should be developed, which will help Health and Social Care Trusts (HSCTs) plan for future requirements, including education and training needs;
  • The number of students entering pre-registration children’s programmes must be kept under review to meet current service needs and future developments;
  • To improve retention, HSCTs should develop employment packages that encourage staff to remain in Northern Ireland;
  • Innovative measures to ensure the availability of clinical experiences for children’s nurses, which reflect current trends relating to the delivery of care, need to be developed;
  • Nurse education must ensure the availability of appropriately qualified nurse educators, according to service need.

Key achievements for health visiting, school nursing and
children’s nursing

  • Leading the implementation of the DHSSPS Review of health visiting and school nursing;
  • Led the development and implementation of the first Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) pilot initiative in Northern Ireland;
  • Completed a scoping exercise on the delivery of childhood vaccinations in primary and community care;
  • Leading the development and implementation of World Health Organization (WHO) growth charts;
  • Led the development and the continuing implementation of the electronic family health assessment;
  • Led the development and implementation of the revised child health promotion programme ‘Healthy Child, Healthy Future’;
  • Led the development and implementation of pre-school speech, language and vision guidance for all healthcare professionals.
  • Led the implementation of the H1N1 flu vaccine for pregnant women programme.

Items of interest

Family Nurse Partnership Transforming Lives in Northern Ireland.pdf

October 2009 Healthy Child Programme The Two Year Review.pdf

User requirements specification for family health assessment.pdf

PCHR Professional Guidance revised final September 2010.pdf

HCHF Factsheet 1 - Handout Does my child speak clearly.pdf

HCHF Factsheet 4 - Handout Dummies and talking.pdf

HCHF Factsheet 5 - Does my child have a voice problem.pdf