Background

The Kent School Health team, part of Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, works with children, adolescents and families across Kent, with responsibility for approximately 300,000 children and 600 schools across the region.

Their role is to safeguard children and identify risks for early intervention and protection, including families, schools, the NHS and child protection services including the police when necessary.
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The Challenge

Before upgrading to a digital solution, Kent Community Health utilised both a School Nursing service and a separate Healthy School team, delivering assessments, support and services to children across Kent. Neither team had visibility of the other team’s data and they knew they could improve their support with a more holistic, joined up approach.

Originally health assessments were done manually on paper across circa. all 600 schools in the region. This was a time consuming and inefficient process, and they knew they could help more children if they could work more efficiently.

The solution

Enter the Lancaster Model (TLM) and Aire Innovate, experts in digital innovation. This digital solution centred around an online Health Needs Assessment Tool which became accessible to children, young people and their families. Following completion of a series of questions about their health and wellbeing an immediate assessment was then reviewed by case holders easily online.

Moving to an online approach ensured the data could be collected in minutes instead of months, removing a bottleneck and meaning potential problems are quickly identified before they progress further and qualified practitioners can provide immediate help and support. Families can also use this approach to request help, then their request can be quickly triaged to the appropriate team.

The portal receives all assessments and alerts are immediately sent to case holders when ‘flags’ are detected and fast action is required. A RAG status is used to prioritise actions and monitor progression, ensuring no child is lost and there is a complete audit trail.

The assessment portal contains a dashboard for case holders, reporting aggregated public health data, activity reports and benchmarking against other areas, giving case holders an holistic view of all their local region, something they didn’t have before digitisation.

Implementation

TLM and Aire Innovate worked closely with Kent Community Health over a three year period, developing a model and service redesign that met the needs of all parties. During Covid, when isolated children needed more help, the school nursing team service found referrals dramatically reduced and they needed to change how they identified children who needed help. This led to the creation of the ‘Whole School Approach’. Using the TLM digital solution, they had an overarching view of both individual children and schools, identifying trends in schools.

“The feedback we have received from our Specialist Community Public Health Nurses (qualified School Nurses) is ‘the thing they enjoy about their role the most is TLM.’ This is because they get to see not only those children who require support and intervention, but also the ones who are healthy and happy. This gives them a balanced view across public health and they can see the impact the teams are making.”

Zoe: Whole School Health Lead - Kent School Health

Benefits

There have been multiple benefits since digitising their assessment process with TLM and Aire Innovate, which have improved the lives of children and their families in Kent. The new online assessment system offers a far more comprehensive approach than before, allowing for the creation of detailed needs profiles across schools.

Surveys can be completed in minutes, with results available instantly, enabling more efficient and responsive school nursing services.

Real life benefits include:

• Early identification of developmental challenges: Children with issues like emotional regulation or toilet training are identified and supported pre-school, easing their transition to formal education.
• Data-driven safety interventions: Digital data revealed significant safety concerns in one school (24% overall, 17% in-school). This led to targeted wrap-around services addressing students’ specific needs.
• Rapid response to safeguarding risks: The system automatically flagged a high-risk comment from a child, triggering immediate triage. This resulted in timely police and social services referrals, potentially averting danger escalation.
• Uncovering hidden home issues: Assessment answers revealed undisclosed home concerns for a child receiving school counseling, enabling the health team to offer additional, targeted support directly and safely.
• 4,923 (13%) of School Entry Pupils triggered a safety alert and received the appropriate support and help quickly
• 16,305 (35%) of Year 6 Pupils triggered a safety alert about their safety and received the appropriate support and help quickly
• A comprehensive needs profile for schools and populations has been created to identify and address specific health requirements effectively