NURSES will hit the road to offer help and health advice to children and young people.

Over the next six months, staff from Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT) will travel across County Durham on Durham County Council’s Growing Healthy Bus to improve the wellbeing of five to 19-year-olds.

The council’s cabinet member for adult and health services, Councillor Lucy Hovvels, said: “We know that there are a range of difficulties that young people can face, be it at home, at school, or with friends.

“But by taking advice and support to them we can try to help them overcome challenges and issues before they become more serious.”

Cllr Ossie Johnson, cabinet member for children’s and youth services, said it will be particularly useful in less accessible areas and for supporting hard to reach families.

HDFT is commissioned by the council’s public health team to provide services for under-19s and the contract includes the launch of a mobile service to take school nurses into communities.

The bus features a private consultation area where children and young people can talk confidentially about a issues including sexual health and relationships, smoking and their emotional wellbeing.

For more details and to find where the bus will be visit hdft.nhs.uk/GHCD, follow @GHBUSCD on Twitter or search GHBUSCD on Instagram.