School Nurses

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many school nurses employed in the NHS are (a) qualified and (b) unqualified; what estimate she has made of the number of school nurses the NHS will need to employ in order to meet her Department’s target of ensuring that each school will have access to a school nurse; and whether this target refers to qualified school nurses. (101714)

An analysis of school nursing staff is provided in the table.

The “Choosing Health” commitment requires the majority of school nurses to have a school nursing qualification by 2010.

*Nursing staff in the school nursing area of work as at 30 September 2005*
	Headcount
All school nursing staff	3,353
Of which:
Qualified nurses	2,887
Of which:
Qualified school nursing nurse¹	943

Unqualified nursing staff	466
¹ Qualified school nurses hold the Nursing and Midwifery Council specialist practice qualification with an outcome in school nursing—which is a recordable qualification on the NMC register. Source: The Information Centre for health and social care non-medical workforce census.

Volume 454: debated on Wednesday 6 December 2006