Regular readers will know that a formal UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) in service evaluation will soon begin into screening for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) in the NHS.
Screening will be offered as part of the existing NHS Newborn Blood Spot (NBS) Screening Programme in about two-thirds of England, from 6 September 2021.
The PHE NBS national team has been working with colleagues in the NHS and external stakeholders to get everything ready to support parents and health care professionals during this important evaluation.
SCID e-learning
We’re really pleased today to launch the new SCID e-learning module on Health Education England’s e-Learning for Health platform.
The PHE NBS national team recommends all health care professionals involved in the offer of screening for SCID complete it. It will help them to support parents making their decision about whether or not their baby should be screened for the condition.
The e-learning covers:
- what SCID is and how many babies will have it each year
- information about the SCID evaluation
- the SCID screening process and what the possible outcomes may mean
- common treatments
- how to support parents throughout SCID screening
- SCID screening and babies born before 37 weeks
Collaboration
We developed the resource collaboratively, with clinicians, laboratory staff and parent representatives.
We were lucky to have lots of willing volunteers from different staff groups and parent support organisations. Their feedback and suggestions were vital. We hope we’ve created a resource that will be useful, easy to navigate, informative and pitched at the right level.
Feedback
This is what some of our e-learning testers have fed back about the new e-learning module.
The parental stories really hit home with me about how important the screening and early detection is. I would rate the resource as 10 out of 10.
Another of our volunteers told us:
The module is clear and to the point – giving you the facts and lots of good examples. A really good resource for blood spot takers.
Another person told us they better understood the concept of a national evaluation after completing the resource:
It helped me appreciate that screening for SCID needs to be evaluated in the NHS. It was also good to understand the questions the SCID evaluation needs to answer.
Another of our user testers told us:
The module is really good, easy to navigate and pitched at the right level. It has made the (NBS) programme clearer to me.
More on SCID
We’ll be blogging again on Wednesday (11 August, 2021) to launch the new NHS SCID screening resources for parents and professionals (including the parent and carer information leaflet). This will appear on the existing blood spot resources page on GOV.UK under a separate ‘SCID’ heading.
If you have any questions about the SCID evaluation, please contact the PHE Screening Helpdesk.
PHE Screening blog
The PHE Screening blog provides up to date news from all NHS screening programmes. You can register to receive updates direct to your inbox, so there’s no need to keep checking for new blogs. If you have any questions about this blog article, or about population screening in England, please contact the PHE screening helpdesk.