Salford Childrens Community Partnership

First of its kind in the UK!

The numbers of children admitted to hospital for less than a day have been increasing dramatically over the last 10 years and the majority of these admissions are for minor illnesses that should stay in the community. Really sick children need to be in hospital but many stay for a night (or afternoon) just because the community isn’t set up to care for them. We are trying to change this to ensure that children and their families will get a much better service and the NHS will save millions.

What is the Salford Children’s Community Partnership?

The Salford Childrens Community Partnership (SCCP for short) is a really exciting project and the first of its kind in the UK and funded for 3 years by the Department of Health. The project started in October 2011. Our service sits between the GP practice and the hospital. It’s a dedicated children’s nursing service in the Little Hulton surgery of Salford Health Matters GP practices, aimed to help children get well at home, a preferable alternative to putting them in hospital on a short term basis when they are near home. The team consists of highly trained, specialist children’s nurses that previously you would have only gotten to care for your child if they were being treated in hospital.

How will the project operate?

Children with illnesses like an asthma flare-up, or high fever, or diarrhoea will be able to be treated, observed and followed-up at the Little Hulton practice and at home by an Advanced Paediatric Nurse Practitioner and Children’s Community Nurse. By conducting home visits, the team can detect any changes early and work closely with parents and can decide who can be cared for at home and who need to be in hospital. They will have phone back-up support to the hospital paediatricians if needed and (of course) access to the emergency services.

What difference will this project make?

Potentially a very big difference to the children of Salford. We have lots of data that says sick children are better off staying in the community whenever possible but the community isn’t set up for this. Our project is going to change that, so children get better care when they are sick and also, valuable NHS resources will be saved.

What sort of treatment can this service provide?

The Advanced Paediatric Nurse Practitioner will be able to examine the child, start treatment and monitor that treatment in the Little Hulton practice, Our Children’s Community Nurse will conduct follow-up checks with the children at home, work with families and make sure things are going in the right direction.

To give you an example: parents of an asthmatic child will – at some time - have had the experience of going to an accident & emergency department for a flare-up where they are assessed, treated, monitored by the children’s team and then sent home. In contrast, our project will put the children’s team close to home because many asthma flare-ups should be managed in the community, but there was never a way to do this. Our project provides another choice for families (and we would argue a much better one, minimising distress of separation for the children and families and saving NHS resources).

Why Little Hulton?

Little Hulton is an area of deprivation and we know that children from disadvantaged backgrounds often do worse on all sorts of measures. Our project will try and make it easier for these families when their children are unwell. This is a pilot project and we will use the learning from our work in Little Hulton to roll out across Salford, and then nation-wide.

What is an Advanced Paediatric Nurse Practitioner?

It is a very experienced children’s nurse, trained to Master’s level that is able to independently assess and then treat common children’s illnesses (like asthma or wheezing, high fevers, or bad stomach bugs)
They are experienced in supporting families with lots of normal childhood problems as paediatrics is their speciality.

Kevin Urdhin has been appointed as an Advanced Paediatric Nurse Practitioner and he will be assisted by Melanie McLaughlin, the Children’s Community Nurse.

Who are the partners?

Kids’ Health Matters CIC is a group of Advanced Paediatric Nurse Practitioners who started a social enterprise in order to transform health service for children by putting high level specialist children’s nursing into the community (instead of just in the hospital). Because Kids’ Health Matters are a social enterprise they are entirely committed to achieving greater social good: they are owned by their employees and do not pay any dividends to shareholders and all profits are reinvested back into the service or the community. Kids Health Matters provide the expertise behind the model of care and are instrumental in the design, development and dissemination of the project.

Hope Street Centre is a Community Interest Company (CIC) led by sector specialists, supplying consultancy, professional development training and research expertise. They help public sector clients and social enterprises to solve complex problems and to deliver innovation and excellence in public services. Hope Street Centre exists to bring innovation and transformation to services that impact on the health and well being of individuals and communities.Hope Street Centre are leading on the evaluation of the project, together with project planning, business planning and marketing.