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The children’s community nurses are a team of nurses who are trained to care for sick children. We do most of our work in the child’s home. We also work in community settings such as clinics, schools and nurseries. The service is based in Watford and the nurses work across all of West Hertfordshire. Clinics are held in St Albans, Hemel Hempstead and Watford. We work closely with the paediatric team at Watford General Hospital as well as specialist hospitals such as Great Ormond Street. The service is provided for all children age 0 to 18 or 0 to 19 (if still at learning disability school). The service operates seven days a week and extends to 24-hour care when this is required to support a child at the end of life.
Our aim is to reduce the impact of childhood illness and reduce the need for hospital admissions. When hospital admission is needed, we work to reduce the length of stay whenever possible. The nurses will support children with long term conditions such as childhood cancer. They will also see children who require short term care for example following surgery. The nurses are skilled in managing a wide range of complex conditions, which allows the child to spend as much time as possible at home with their family.
Children's community nursing team leaflet
Contact the service
Tel: 01923 470680
- How the service is provided
- What happens following your referral
- Who is eligible for the service
- Useful information
- Making a referral
- Patient experience
How the service is provided
The children’s community nursing team offers a seven day week service, 365 days of the year, 8am - 6pm.
What happens following your referral
Once the Children’s Community Nursing (CCN) service have received the referral, it will be triaged by our Single Point Of Contact Nurse.
If the referral has been accepted, the patient will be added to a waiting list and a member of the team will make contact in due course. Priority will be given to all urgent referrals, when contact will be made within five days of receipt of referral, to book an appointment. If the referral has been rejected, we will advise the referrer.
As we work through our waiting list, our administration team will be in touch with you through either your mobile or landline phone to arrange a suitable date and time for your appointment. You will receive a confirmation and reminder SMS for this booking.
When we contact you, we will be checking all of your personal details such as address, date of birth and GP details. We will also capture any requirements or reasonable adjustments that you/your child or young person (CYP) may need for your appointment such as hearing loop or interpreter.
A children’s community nurse will attend a pre-arranged appointment to review and/or treat your child as per referral or you may attend one of our clinics. For home visits, appointments will be booked for either morning or afternoon slots, with limited provision for before school or after school appointments. You will be given an allotted time slot, but this is subject to change due to appointments over running, emergency visits and traffic. For home visits please ensure that there is liquid hand soap, clean towel or kitchen paper available, and pets are put away.
For all clinic appointments, if you are unable to attend/bring in your CYP to the appointment, you will need to inform us at least 48 hours prior to the appointment date by calling us on 01923 470 680 option 1 then option 2 or email ccnteam@nhs.net. Failing to bring your CYP in without notifying us will result in a ‘DNA appointment’, and they will be removed from the waiting list and discharged. If clinically appropriate, a second appointment may be booked. If you fail to bring in the CYP to the second appointment, they will be removed from the waiting list and discharged.
If your CYP attends a Special School, the CCN team will arrange for their appointment to be carried out at the school with the support of the Special School Nurse. You will be invited to attend school for your CYP’s appointment.
If any of your personal details change before we contact you, or you no longer require an appointment, or you need to make us aware of any parking restrictions affecting home visit appointments, please contact us on 01923 470 680 option 1 then option 2.
Who is eligible for the service
All children and young people aged between 0 to 18, or 0 to 19 (if still at a Learning Disabilities School) who have a diagnosed health need that requires nursing support within the community.
Useful information
Have you heard of the Local Offer? If you are a young person with, or have a child with special educational needs and disabilities, the Local Offer is Hertfordshire’s central source of information for SEND services and support. Visit www.hertsdirect.org/localoffer for an easily accessible one stop shop.
To contact the service out-of-hours, call 01707 710077.
If your child requires a blood test, please watch this useful video for a guide on how to apply the numbing cream before their appointment. This video was produced by NHS Salford CCG.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6jA3kz58e8&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hct.nhs.uk%2F&feature=emb_logo
If the embedded video is not showing, access the video via this link.
Making a referral
We welcome referrals from healthcare professionals and are happy to discuss referrals to ensure suitability to our service. We clinically assess all referrals on the same day as they are received. Please see the referral form below. When making a referral please call the single point of contact telephone number to ensure that we have capacity to meet this referral.
Urgent Care Pathways
The children’s community nurses see urgent care pathways for bronchiolitis (0-2 years), febrile child (0-5 years), asthma (2-16 years) and gastroenteritis. We accept referrals for children and young people within a Green or Amber scoring. We aim to follow up with a telephone call/face to face visit on the day of the referral or within 24 hours depending on the requirement from the referring clinician.
Details for referrals
Children's community nursing team
Peace Children's Centre
Peace Prospect
Watford
WD17 3EW
Out of Hours contact number: 01707 710077
Tel: 01923 470680
Email: ccnteam@nhs.net
Patient experience
If you would like to share your story, please contact the Patient Experience team on 01707 388036 or email hct.patientexperienceteam@nhs.net
We would also love to hear about your experience on our service, please complete a survey by clicking here.
