Our administration support team are your first point of contact through our support and advice line: 01246 515100, which is open Monday to Friday from 9am-4.30pm. The team may also contact you if we have information missing from your child’s record, such as which school they attend.
We have two Derbyshire office bases; one in Dronfield and one in Ripley.
The team also support the service with administrative work for the 0-19 year children’s services, which includes appointment bookings with the health visitors and public health nurses.
Health visitors
Health visitors are registered nurses/midwives who have additional training in community public health nursing. Their role is to lead the national healthy child programme. Health visitors have a wide range of skills and knowledge to help children and families with their health and developmental needs. They also work closely with other services and can support access or signpost you to them.
You will have a named health visitor who will support you and your family until your child reaches school age. They will also visit your home a minimum of five times from late pregnancy up to your child’s two year old development assessment.
In Derbyshire, we also have a preschool contact, delivered by our community nursery nurses, to support you and your child with school readiness, just before or at 5 years old.
This video from the Prince and Princess of Wales, talks about the important role health visitors play: #ShapingUs - The Princess of Wales spotlights the vital role of Health Visitors
Community nursery nurse
Community nursery nurses provide a vital role within the 0-19 public health team and have a qualification in early years, education and childcare. They use their specific expertise to provide packages of care and support for families previously assessed by the health visitor, and deliver the preschool assessment.
Infant feeding specialists
As a team, the infant feeding specialists have received further training and hold clinics in several venues across the county to assist with mothers who are encountering more complex feeding challenges. Appointments with our infant feeding specialists involve a full feeding assessment, including observation of a feed and exploring ways to support the family on their feeding journey. The specialist will help to create a plan with you, to work on alongside the support of the health visitor, the infant feeding practitioners and volunteer service.
Infant feeding practitioners
Infant feeding practitioners provide support and information to families to help each child have a healthy start in life. The team cover breastfeeding, infant and toddler nutrition and run local weaning groups. If you live in an area where you pay your council tax to Derbyshire County Council, you are eligible for a home visit from an infant feeding practitioner before your baby is 10 days old. If you haven't received a phone call from our team within 48 hours of coming home from the hospital, then please call the Derbyshire Family Health Service number on 01246 515100.
Breastfeeding volunteers
Breastfeeding volunteers are mums in the community who can reassure you when breastfeeding is going well, or signpost you to other resources when it isn't. It can be tricky to know if you're doing things right when your breastfed baby doesn't behave how you might expect – the role of the breastfeeding volunteer is to listen to you, and let you know what's normal.
Breastfeeding volunteers are not healthcare professionals or health visitors – they are mothers who have breastfed, and who have had further training on breastfeeding and how to support breastfeeding families.
Public health nurses
The public health nurse teams are part of the 0-19 public health service and work for Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust and not for the school.
Public health nurses are qualified nurses who have also completed a degree in public health nursing and school nursing. We have teams in each area of Derbyshire, who have specific skills and knowledge to help children, young people and families with their public health needs; providing information, support and advice e.g. sexual health and wellbeing, drugs and alcohol use, healthy diet and exercise. This support is delivered one to one, in small groups or on a larger scale e.g. school assemblies.
Young people aged 11-19 years old can speak to their school pastoral teacher or reception to find out when the public health nurse visits their school or contact the public health nurse team directly to arrange an appointment: ‘Contact Us’ .
Public health nurses can also signpost on to other services once an assessment has been completed.
Community staff nurses
Community staff nurses are qualified nurses who have the skills and knowledge to help children, young people and families with their health needs or to signpost them on to other services once an assessment has been completed.
The public health nursing team can help you with general continence advice and support, to help with resolving your child's continence issues.
If you need further help with children’s continence needs, we will support you with a referral into our small nurse-led community service, working within Derby City and Derbyshire, to support young people from 4 – 18 years old (19 years old if in special school).