A new deal worth £1.77m is being drawn up to help tackle a children's nursing crisis affecting Bury.

Plans to recruit up to 25 school nurses, 13 health visitors and five new members of the children's community nursing team will be discussed by council and health chiefs on Monday.

Currently health visitors are failing to meet targets around new birth visits, breastfeeding and developmental checks in Bury, councillors have been told.

And the children's community nursing team does not have the recommended minimum staffing level of 20 whole time employees per 50,000 of population, a report to the borough's locality board has confirmed.

Staff have already raised concerns over caseload pressures, the reports adds.

The council has also been forced to pay out in two Ombudsman cases in the past 12 months alone for failures to deliver education health care plans (EHCP) for youngsters.

In a report by Petra Hayes-Bower, assistant director of nursing for the Northern Care Alliance (NCA), the borough's healthcare provider, and her colleague Natalie Cohen, the children's lead nurse, the scale of the challenge facing Bury is outlined.

Councillors have heard that requests for EHCPs have risen by 232 per cent from 2016 to 2022.

An increase in Bury's child population of 3.91 per cent, or 7,300 youngsters, was also observed from 2013 to 2022.

The report authors say: "Compounded by the pandemic and reducing resources across the children’s health and social care economy, the services have reached a critical point.

"They are no longer able to meet their commissioned requirements of the mandated public health (targets) and meet the statutory/safeguarding functions without investment or adjustment of expectation from partners."

Under the proposals drawn up, a three-year recruitment and improvement programme would take place, funded by the council, the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board and the NCA.

The report adds: "This would improve the health and wellbeing of the existing staff (a key priority in the NCA Health and Wellbeing Strategy) who have raised concerns regarding the pressures experienced due to the caseload sizes and complexities.

"The workforce has raised concerns that they predominately have to focus on safeguarding which impacts on their job satisfaction. The recent NCA staff survey reflects the concerns raised.

"The increase in the workforce would enable the SN (special needs) service to implement the new delivery model which has evaluated positively from partners, service users and staff.

"The HV (health visiting) service would be able to deliver the full HCP (health care plan), supporting the early identification of need and ensuring appropriate support provided, prevention of need is a key element of the role that provides good job satisfaction."

Councillors have also been told the investment would also assist with the goals of the Bury Children's Improvement Board, set up after children's services was given an "inadequate" rating by education watchdog Ofsted in October 2021.

The locality board, including senior councillors and directors and NCA directors, will meet at Bury Town Hall to debate the proposals.