Discussion with Judy Mace, Designated Children in Care Nurse, on her work with Children in Care
Minutes:
Judy Mace from the Children in Care (CiC) Nursing Team gave a short presentation on the work of the team which was centred on the statutory responsibility for health reviews to be undertaken for all Haringey CiC. The function had previously been the responsibility of GPs but transferred to the CiC nursing team at the beginning of the year. The three full time nurses within the team visited all CiC to undertake health reviews, even those placed out of borough, and were achieving good performance overall. Each full assessment took approximately 8 hours to complete including requesting medical records, the appointment and follow up work such as making referrals. It was reported that the most prevalent health issues seen in CiC population were mental health problems, emotional distress and incomplete immunisation history.
Anecdotal evidence suggested that the quality of health reviews and the engagement of CiC had increased since the service transferred to the new team. The new service would also allow an overall picture to be gained on the health issues of CiC and generally as a model, facilitated better linkage with other health services including school nurses, the Tavistock Service for mental health issues and with the two residential children’s homes.
In response to a question on the costs of the new service, it was confirmed that these were currently being calculated but provisionally appeared to be on an equal level to the previous GP model of delivery.
Work was underway to incorporate feedback from CiC into the health review process and to consider in particular enhancing support for Southwark young people and those leaving care to help improve the transition to adult services. Consideration would also be given to ways of enhancing the participation of older children who were often the most difficult to engage, for example through adoption of a drop in centre approach etc.