Devon Public Health Nursing

Devon Public Health Nursing provides health visiting and school nursing services across Devon. They deliver universal child and family health services and provide ongoing targeted and specialist services for vulnerable children and families. The team is made up of health visitors, school nurses, staff nurses and community health workers.

We rated it as good because:

• Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect children, young people and their families from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to children and young people, acted on them and kept good care records. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• Staff provided good care and treatment and supported children and young people with their nutrition and hydration. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of children, young people and their families, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information.
• Staff treated children, young people and their families with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their health and wellbeing. They provided emotional support to children and young people, families and carers.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of children and young people’s individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.
• Leaders ran services well and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of children and young people receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with children, young people and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• The service did not have enough staff to provide services to all of the identified contacts in Devon County Council.
• The provider did not have an intuitive and integrated information system.
• Not all staff were aware of the Duty of Candour and how they learnt from incidents.
• Appraisal and supervision rates appeared to be low due to not all being centrally documented.
• Some male parents and carers felt that more work could be done to include them.
• There were delays in staff completing two year reviews.
• Some staff had unequal working terms and conditions due to the variance between the Local Authority terms and conditions and ‘agenda for change’.