First Aid and Medication

There is a new clinic for UASCs. This is a joint clinic with the Paediatrician, CYPMHS and the Health Improvement Practitioner (HIP). The Health Improvement Practitioner will give advice to Foster Carers regarding registration and follow ups with the GP and dentist and any other appointments   

Once in Care, Children under five years of age will have a statutory Review Health Assessment every six months. Children over the age of five will have a statutory Review Health Assessment every 12 months. These review appointments will be organised by the LAC health team and the review will be with the LAC Nurse Specialist.

It is your responsibility as the child's carer, to ensure that the child attends the medical appointments. You will be asked to provide evidence of attendance at health appointments including any visits to the GP – dates and reasons for visiting, dentist address and date of appointment, optician address and date of appointment and any specialists' appointments e.g. hospital appointments, Speech and Language etc. When you attend please ensure you bring the Child's Red Book and any hospital/clinic letters you have.

If your child is over 4yr, you will be asked to complete an SDQ. This questionnaire is a guide to monitor your child's emotional health and behaviour. The score is relayed back to the SW along with any recommendations for therapeutic intervention, e.g. Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHS). The questionnaire may have been posted to you with your appointment letter; if you don't bring it to the appointment, please be prepared to complete this with the Nurse at the time of the appointment.

If your child needs an interpreter, this will be arranged by the LAC administrator. 

Medical consent

Foster carers cannot sign medical consent forms for invasive treatment. We ask foster carers to obtain the appropriate consent via the child's social worker and this is usually from the foster child's birth parent or a social work manager. Foster carers can arrange for checks for a foster child, including GPs, dentists, opticians and the LAC Nurses, however any treatment following such appointments will require the consent of the person or persons with parental responsibility. It is the child's social worker who organises for the consent to be given to the medical person. Hospitals usually send the consent form to the child's social worker for them to obtain the necessary signatures.

Emergency treatment

If the child requires emergency treatment foster carers should make the necessary arrangements and then contact the child's social worker. Although this may be an area of anxiety for foster carers especially around accidents that occur at weekends or in the evening, a foster carer should not sign any consent forms and must contact the emergency duty team, who will ensure that a parent with parental responsibility and/or a senior manager is contacted in order to authorise treatment.

Senior medical staff have authority to treat all children without consent in an emergency.

The Named Nurse (Team Leader):

LAC Specialist Health Visitor

LAC Specialist School Nurse

Lead Administrator (for IHAs)

Pathway Care Coordinator (for RHAs)

Health Improvement Practitioner for UASCs

Emotional and Health Wellbeing Nurse for Care Leavers (18yr-21yr)

The 3 Specialist LAC Nurses are trained to complete the RHAs for all age groups.

The role of the LAC Nursing Team is to ensure that Newham's looked after children are not disadvantaged by ill health, and have all of their health needs identified and met. 

The team liaise closely with Social Worker, CYPMHS and GPs to ensure that the child's emotional and general health is monitored.

All children and young people will have an initial medical when they first become looked after. This medical is carried out by a paediatrician. Following the medical, a Care Plan is written outlining what the current health concerns are and what needs to be done and by whom. The foster carer and the GP receives a copy of this.

If the child remains looked after, they will be asked to attend a review health assessment every six months up to the age of five years and annually after that until they reach eighteen. The LAC nurses will arrange all the review appointments and ensure that foster carers are aware of when the child's next appointment is due. 

The assessment takes an holistic approach and will look at all aspects of the child's physical and mental health i.e. lifestyle, eating habits, exercise, weight and anything that might be of concern to the child. 

Foster carers will attend medicals and health assessments, until the young person is of an age when they can give their own consent and may wish to attend medicals on their own.  It's extremely important that foster carers keep records of medical/hospital appointments attended, immunisations given and any health issues the child may have, which can be passed on to any future placements the child may go to.

The Newham LAC nurses will undertake the health assessments for children who are placed in Newham and also for those living within a reasonable travelling distance of Newham. They also maintain a reciprocal arrangement with other local authority LAC nurses, who will undertake health assessments on our children and young people who live long distances out-of-borough.

The nurses are always available to offer health advice and answer any queries from foster carers and can be contacted by calling 020 7059 6574/6575/6578/6579 or for medical appointments on 020 7059 6932 or by emailing lacnursesnewham@nhs.net.

For continuity purposes, it is important to try and keep the child your caring for registered with their own GP. Sometimes this is not possible because a child has moved to a new area. In these cases, we ask you to register the child placed with you with your own GP, or another GP within your catchment area as soon as possible. Your child's social worker should provide you with a letter to help you register your child with your GP.

It is important that the GP registers the child as a 'permanent' patient and not a 'temporary' patient. If this occurs there is a chance that records and health history will be lost.

For unaccompanied seeking asylum children or children with no immigration status in the UK; there is an expectation for GPs to register that child. See BMA website

If there are problems registering UASCs the new Health Improvement Practitioner will be able to assist.

NHS Direct is now an internet service providing advice and information on treating health problems. It is a useful website if the child you are caring for is not feeling well at a time when your GP surgery is closed. Go to NHS website

The new NHS 111 SERVICE has replaced the telephone service NHS Direct provided.

Please dial 111 to be connected if you would prefer to speak to someone about the child's symptoms.

When a child or young person you care for requires medication you must make sure that the medication has a clear pharmacist label on it stating the dose and frequency to be given. If the medication does not have adequate labelling you must seek the advice of the child's doctor. 

The pharmacy label must state:

• The child or young persons name;
• Date of dispensing;
• Name and strength of medicine;
• Dose and frequency of medicine.

There are occasions when you will need to treat a child with over the counter medicines.  You must make sure you are aware of the medicine's possible side effects and their interaction with other medicines and foods. Over the counter medicines must be administered strictly in accordance with the recommended dosage instructions supplied on the container. Always check if medicine contains paracetamol and do not exceed the recommended daily dose.