Council U-turn on children's nursing cuts

Proposals to remove community staff nurses from the health visiting services in Suffolk have been reversed, but cuts to school nursing and support for teenage parents will go ahead.

Suffolk County Council said it wanted to make changes to how children's community nursing was provided, as the current model was not financially viable.

Unison's Eastern Regional Organiser Cameron Matthews said: "The council has listened to the public on keeping nurses in its health visiting team, but ignored overwhelming opposition to every other aspect of its plans."

June Mummery, the Reform UK-led council's cabinet member for public health, said: "I pushed hard for us to look again at the proposals and find another way forward."

The Healthy Child Programme includes services for new parents and babies, such as health visitors and support for teenage mums and dads. It also incorporates the school nursing service.

As part of that, community staff nurses are experienced nurses who hold a specialist role linked to each service in the programme.

A consultation on the original plans to cut community staff nurses, to remove support for teenage parents and make school nursing services term-time and more digitally focused ran from 8 July until 18 October.

There were 1,928 responses and, according to a report to next week's cabinet meeting, "the most frequently selected response was that the proposals would have a negative impact".

A final proposal has now been published and the council says community staff nurses will now remain, but it will no longer fund intensive support for teenage parents and young families. The proposals for changing school nursing will also go ahead.

Mummery said: "People spoke and we listened. The message could not have been clearer.

"Families, staff and partners told us that community staff nurses are valued, trusted, and make a real difference to children's lives."

Around 90 young families with parents under 21 receive intensive support under the Family Nurse Partnership and the Young Parents Pathway.

The council in its report admits the decision to end these services will have an "adverse impact" for some young parents.

There has been support for reversing the plans for community staff nurses, but there is still concern over what the final working model will look like.

The council would not confirm to the BBC how many jobs were at risk under its original plans, nor would it confirm the number of jobs at risk under the updated proposal.

Trade unions Unite, Unison, along with the Royal College of Nursing, have all spoken out about the plans.

Matthews added: "Councillors may think their plans will save some cash, but robbing preventative services is just creating more expensive problems down the road — while denying many children a decent start in life."

Jack Abbott, the Labour MP for Ipswich, said: "While the service as a principle might have been saved, the Reform administration won't confirm if they will still cut the number of nurses, and they still are making brutal cuts to essential family services."

Bobby Bennett, a Conservative county councillor who is shadow spokesperson for children's services, said: "We still don't know how many community staff nurses will remain, what this means for the wider nursing workforce or what will happen beyond 2027/28.

"Staff and families deserve clear answers, not more uncertainty."

The council says the new model will require an additional £3.7m a year from the public health budget and £1.4m from its core funding.

The proposal, and the additional funding, will be decided on at Suffolk County Council's cabinet meeting on 10 November.

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