The Blackpool Teaching Hospitals School Nurse team is working with health practitioners across Lancashire and South Cumbria as part of the ‘Asthma Friendly School’ (AFS) project and to support schools to achieve the Asthma Friendly Accreditation.
The programme aims to enhance effective partnership working across health, education, and local authorities to support children and young people with asthma attending primary and secondary schools.
The programme uses government policy on emergency inhalers and aims to support school staff with management of health conditions in educational settings, along with a standardised AFS resource pack.
As part of the programme schools are being offered:
- Evidence based and standardised asthma management training sessions
- Support with school asthma emergency treatment polices.
- Support with emergency kits and management plans for individual children.
- Encourages schools to identify staff who are ‘Asthma Champions’.
- Support for children who are missing education because of their asthma or who are not joining in with sports and other activities because of poor control.
Locally, 10 schools have been identified to pilot the project and the team is making steady progress with supporting them to achieve their accreditation. The team is also linking in with Asthma Network meetings and other Trust services such as the paediatric inpatient wards and Emergency Department (ED) to support the national planned Asthma Care Bundles.
The Trust is also working with our healthcare colleagues across the region, sharing best practice on ED follow-ups by the School Nurse Team when a child has attended with exacerbation of asthma symptoms. Moving forward, all schools in Blackpool which are due their asthma training updates will be offered the support to achieve Asthma Friendly School status as the standard School Nurse offer.