Hi, my 6 year old daughter has been attending her local Rainbows unit since January. She has Type 1 Diabetes and Coeliac Disease.
In October she was invited to the ultimate event for a 'grown up' Rainbow - the Sleepover! Of course she wanted to go. We, and her medical team saw no reason why she could not attend. The venue is just 13 minutes away from home (the usual Rainbows meeting place is 9 minutes away).
The response from the Guiders when we said she would like to attend, was that DD was a "horrific responsibility," and that we had been expected to decline the invitation.
We are now nearly 3 months into the complaints procedure. We have offered numerous ways we can help facilitate our daughter being included, including us staying close by (there is no room for one of us to stay on site), doing her medication, providing food, being on call etc.
Our first complaint got upheld, however, we were told that DD still could not go on the sleepover :(
The complaint report also revealed other failures such as no risk assessments for weekly meetings.
We have made subsequent formal complaints of a Failure to Make Reasonable Adjustments, and of Disability Discrimination. These to date have been ignored.
At no point has anyone asked what our child's needs actually are.
Since all the complaints went in, there has been a further incident. We phoned to check that it would be ok for DD to attend the last meeting before Christmas, given the issues surrounding weekly meetings. We offered to stay either on site or close by. We were told by Girl Guide HQ that the meeting was cancelled due to a leader being ill. The story did not add up. I was passing the meeting hall on the way home, and so I pulled in. Within a few minutes, some leaders arrived, followed by the Rainbows, and then more leaders. It appears that DD was purposely excluded.
There is more detail about all of this here on my Blog.
We realise that as a whole Girl Guides can be inclusive, however after nearly three months, nothing has been resolved, and our complaints remain unanswered.
Our daughter is incredibly brave. She does not deserve to be treated like this. She just wants to be with her friends at Rainbows. We also hope that we can prevent this happening to any other child in future.
Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.
MNHQ have commented on this thread
SN children
Rainbows (Girl Guides) - all my daughter wants for Christmas is to be included in your organisation.
TwinkleChristmasStar · 20/12/2014 12:58
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Message withdrawn at poster's request.
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