Published on: 05/01/2026
Each year a Parish Nursing project has an annual review reflective questionnaire to complete and every 4th year has a full accreditation.
The review is held with the PNMUK (Parish Nursing Ministries UK) Coordinator for the area, which for St Matthews is Dawn Stephens. The meeting involves myself as Lead Parish Nurse, Father Naylor, the Parish Nursing team administrator and the Churches development worker.
This includes reflections on our service:
What has changed since the last review?
Unbelievably, it will be a year since I undertook the Lead Parish Nurse role – I am not sure where time has gone!
What has gone well?
It has been a seamless transition. As a team we meet every month and have resilience supervision sessions. This provides support to all within the team. The team held a quiet day at Bishopscroft and this provided spiritual refreshment and fellowship. The stall was relocated within the market, and this has led to increased engagement with other services as well as with the public. Catherine qualified this year as a Parish Nurse and has been a great asset due to her experience, especially in maternity services. We continue to work alongside Diabetes UK and the Welcome Space colleagues. We support the Anderson Green project at the Arthouse, providing hot food and art activities for those who are on a recovery journey, as well as Little Prints Baby toddler group and Scriptorium.
What has gone less well?
Our project Mindful music project for those with Dementia and their family despite extensive publicity did not meet expectations in terms of interest. This may be due to a number of existing groups within the community.
What challenges are we facing?
Funding applications continues to be competitive in the current financial climate although we do have some amazing supporters for our service. We have just been allocated a Community Lottery fund of £19,999 to support the Lead Nurse post as well as receiving funds from the Number 1 Trust fund, The Church Burgesses, Joseph Rank, Harry Bottom Trust, The Fellowship of St John’s and the parishes personal donors.
We discuss the partnership with PNMUK which is amazing. There is always someone you can contact within the Parish Nursing Ministries UK Leadership team for advice and support.
Each area of the Parish Nursing service is then discussed.
- Well led: Leadership management and governance assures a high quality and sustainable parish Nursing service
- Safe: The Parish Nursing service is safe, protecting those using and providing the service from harm.
- Responsive: The Parish Nursing service is responsive to the needs of people in the local community.
- Caring: The people using the service are treated with compassion. kindness, dignity and respect.
- Effective: The Parish Nursing service is effective in improving the health of people in the local community.
Following the discussion an action plan is developed and identify any risks to the service for the year ahead.
The Parish Nursing service at St Matthew’s had a positive review and is looking forward to continuing to develop the service. One development is that Catherine has started a maternal journaling group. This is a safe space to process thoughts and feelings around childbirth, and has already had a positive response. During all this time we continue to give thanks to God through prayer for our service and to those whose lives we have touched.