Joint union position statement - health provision in schools

Cuts to clinical services have increasingly shifted responsibility for healthcare to schools. Now, non-clinical school staff – including teaching assistants and office staff – are performing complex medical procedures, often with little or no NHS support.

A joint union position statement – from the Association of School and College Leaders, the GMB union, NAHT, UNISON and Unite –  outlines the problem, and recommends a delivery solution, which includes:

• a needs-led, NHS-commissioned clinical school nursing service to be embedded in all state-funded education settings;
• delegated clinical tasks undertaken by NHS-employed staff;
• a local authority-commissioned public health nursing service.

The unions also produced a briefing for MPs.