School nurse wins Cavell Star Award for modernising service

A school nurse who helped modernise a health and well-being service has won an award from Cavell Nurses’ Trust

A school nurse has won an award from the charity Cavell Nurses’ Trust for her work in improving a school nursing service in Warwickshire.

Maggie Clarke, assistant director for Compass, a not-for-profit charity delivering a nurse-led school health and well-being service for Warwickshire County Council, said she was ‘shocked and delighted’ to receive the Cavell Star Award.

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Ms Clarke said: ‘I am privileged to work with so many wonderful people who work hard every day to improve outcomes for children and young people, and to be nominated and given this award when I’m among so many fantastic people was special.’

The awards programme was launched last year by the charity, which supports working and retired nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants in the UK who are going through personal or financial hardship.

‘She has transformed the service to one that is innovative and responsive’

Through her strategic and operational work, Ms Clarke helped Warwickshire's school health and well-being service modernise through new ways of working.

For example, in response to research identifying that growing numbers of children in Warwickshire were not school-ready - and unable to dress themselves, use cutlery to eat and still wore nappies - an online developmental assessment questionnaire was created for parents of children aged around three-and-a-half.

The results of this questionnaire resulted in five referrals being made to health visiting services for toileting, behaviours and developmental delay, the identification of 42 children who had not seen a dentist. There were also requests for more information on health topics from 40 parents.

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School and Public Health Nurses Association chief executive Sharon White, who nominated Ms Clarke for the award, praised her ‘transformational leadership’ for helping Compass to win a renewed tender for nine more years, an unprecedented length of time in the sector.

‘She has, with her own indomitable style of coaching, mentoring, engaging and valuing, embraced the rough with the smooth and transformed the inherited service to one that is innovative, responsive and, most importantly, one that improves health and well-being outcomes for children, young people and families,’ Ms White said.

‘She is hugely popular at all levels and highly respected among her staff and national strategic colleagues alike.’

Find out how to nominate a nurse, midwife or healthcare assistant for a Cavell Star award

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