-
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
- Who is eligible for the service
- What will happen at your appointment
- 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.
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.
What will happen at your appointment
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. Although appointments will be booked to an allotted time, the children’s community nurses allow a two-hour window in case of appointments over running, emergency visits and traffic.
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 07827 954 082.
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: 07827 954082
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 pals.hchs@nhs.net.
We would also love to hear about your experience on our service, please complete a survey by clicking here.