Children's Epilepsy Nursing Team

The children’s epilepsy nursing service provide specialist support to children who have a diagnosis of epilepsy or who are suspected to have epilepsy, and their families, in the Barnsley area.

We are a community based service and provide support in a variety of settings including peoples' homes, schools, nurseries, hospital clinics or over the telephone.

We aim to:

• reduce seizures and side-effects to treatment in children who have epilepsy
• empower children and their families to understand the condition better, resulting in improved self management
• improve the quality of life for children/young people with epilepsy and their families
• reduce the mis-diagnosis of epilepsy
• contribute to a reduction in epilepsy related deaths and accidents
• improve continuity and co-ordination of care, including the timely and smooth transition to adult services
• promote service development to best meet the needs of children with epilepsy and their families
• increase awareness of epilepsy within the local community

We work closely with our partner services in health, education, social care and the voluntary sector and provide education packages for staff within these areas.

We have also established close links with staff and services from the acute hospital where we help to run a dedicated epilepsy clinic every Wednesday morning. We also work closely with the paediatric neurology team in Sheffield and support their epilepsy clinics each month in Barnsley.

This focus on partnership enables us to supports the assessment and ongoing management of children with epilepsy in the community, continuing to reduce the misdiagnosis of epilepsy, whilst also reducing costly admissions to the acute hospital for epilepsy, and the need to see GP’s for issues relating to epilepsy.

Why would someone choose our service?

The parents and carers of children who use our service often report that they feel “reassured and relieved” when they have met with us.

In our patient and public feedback audits patients and parents consistently report that they feel that our service reduces the need for their child to be admitted to hospital, and the need to access GP appointments.

The service also plays a key role in sharing information about the child with a variety of services and parents report that they find that this reduces their anxieties about their child being in school, nursery, respite etc.

As a service we make sure that we are up-to-date with the latest information and evidence and that the care and support that we provide is considered to be best practice and in-line with the guidance provided by organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

To find out more about the children’s epilepsy nursing team explore the pages in the menu on the left or visit South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s website