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Use SchoolScreener® to Build Robust School Nursing Business Cases & Secure Funding

If you read the first part of this two-part series, “The 5 Steps to building a persuasive NHS business case: Our recommended framework for your next proposal”,  you will already be familiar with some of the general tips & tricks to create an effective school nursing business case. 

One of the points from the first post is that to precisely identify benefits & drawbacks is an indispensable tool, when it comes to a school nursing business case. Your stakeholders will want to know exactly how much a proposed solution might cost, or how much it will save. That’s why we offer a full range of technical specifications for all of our products on the NHS digital marketplace, to allow you to make the informed decisions necessary. 

SchoolScreener Supports Your School Nursing Business Case

Commissioners & decision makers love data (even more so with the republished Healthy child programme 0 to 19: health visitor and school nurse commissioning). Which is why we have worked to project exactly how much SchoolScreener can save you, and where. 

By providing a number of productivity savings projections, we can help Providers to support their decisions to board members. 

While School Nursing is increasing use of digitisation, many services rely on manual processes. This necessarily constrains what services can be delivered within a fixed budget and skill-mix. But, this is also in the context of an increasing need to do more – with (often) fewer resources.  

For example, a school nursing service where administration (in school and Provider-wide) is manually completed could be saving the Trust many times the cost of implementing digitisation. However, the Service needs to demonstrate the how and why – it needs the data for the business case not just in terms of cost savings, but in capacity building and improving the offer/quality of provision. 

Our model below (example for vision screening) estimates the time-savings you could be making with SchoolScreener, and where those savings are being made.

Whilst we can provide estimates of the relevant cost-savings based on NHS paybands, you know the costs of your service. The time savings below is a framework that enables you to  translate the time savings into cost savings for your service. These time savings help also identify how your service can release staff resources and skills for other priorities or use cost savings as may be required for other needs.

Identifying Areas of Saving: Secure Financial Backing For Your School Nursing Business Case

SchoolScreener is a tool that enables more to be done with less. We have similar models for other activities for in school delivery and Trust wide management of  the NCMP, Health Needs, Immunisations, Hearing Screening, eConsent and Parent communications. Here’s how we typically break down our productivity savings estimates for one product. Please note, these are test figures & are not based on any real population data:

In the test locality above, with 3150 children savings per child when using SchoolScreener® Vision equaled almost 20 minutes.

The time-savings are broken down into specific savings per activity. This provides a comprehensive picture of exactly where the savings are going. From this figure, you can calculate the total amount of time that the Service could save over the course of the entire locality per year.  

That’s a thousand hours of saved time over the whole locality, which quickly adds up.

Some Points to Note About Data Validity

To calculate these figures, we require specific information from the Provider regarding their population. So, the estimate of time-savings for one Provider is not necessarily applicable to another. 

The data will change depending on the number of children, the number of schools, or the average number of children per school and the detail of service provision (including the mix of part to full time staff, and the geography of a locality). It also varies depending on the amount of time you currently spend on a given activity.  Also, for Vision and Hearing Screening it will depend on whether clinical or non clinical staff currently deliver screening in school.

But remember – in part 1 of this blog we mentioned the importance of contextualisation. Hard numbers are core to the business case. However, just as important, is explaining how Service provision for the children and schools in your locality can be better served within the resources available to your Service. It is the quality and sustainability, against a background of Service transformation, that is central to the Healthy Child Programme guidelines. Evidence to support this process is needed by Provider management for quarterly meetings between Commissioner and Provider.

Calculating the Cost Savings to Support Your School Nursing Business Case

Just calculating the time savings is well & good, but to truly win over the stakeholders for your school nursing business case, you’ll need to explore the costing implications. 

Luckily, SchoolScreener has your back. We can calculate cost-savings for you, against a number of different NHS pay scales. So, whether you’re freeing up time from Screeners, School Nurses, or Clinical Leads, you’ll know exactly how much “bang for your buck” you’re getting. And, for Services implementing SchoolScreener, the tool automatically reports outcomes through dashboards tailored to each Provider’s requirements automatically ready for management and Commissioners. But,  regardless of where the savings are, the important thing is that you are releasing more time to do what really matters. 

So, Just How Much Could You Save with SchoolScreener?

Back to the example above. In this case, for Vision Screening, the savings indicate (assuming an average rate of pay of £20p/h) £20,000 saved over the course of a year. This figure is subject to change depending on your specific skill-mix, and allocation of duties. It’s worth noting that the more high-band workers you have delivering low-level duties, the greater savings you stand to make. 

Increasingly, service transformation in vision (and hearing) screening means that screening is delivered by lower bands, releasing Orthoptists and Audiologists to focus on diagnosis and treatment. Other additional savings can be as simple as reducing school visits (many services using SchoolScreener Vision, Hearing and NCMP do this in a single visit).

Of course, realistically the savings will be spread across a range of differing roles. So, calculating the exact numbers can be tricky when it comes to your school nursing business case. But, with the exact data, we can provide bespoke projections of savings for your Trust. 

Want to find out what else we can do for your School Nursing Business Case? 

If you want to find out more about exactly how much time or money SchoolScreener could save you, get in touch today. Arrange a no-obligation, free product demonstration. 

Still looking for more information about crafting an airtight School Nursing Business Case? You should check out our free webinar series on “Building A Better Business Case”, here.

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