NHS refusing treatment to child who attends private school.

The NHS has given nobody a budget. The local authority has purchased a service from education budgets. Sned your child to an LA funded school and you get that service, just like you get English lessons - it is the procured package for schools. The NHS is selling a service, not giving it away.

You are having a rant about something that is nothing whatsoever to do with ANYTHING to do with the non-story. You are not being asked to pay for your childrens healthcare, and you surely aren't really thinking that. The local education authority has commissioned a specific service for the schools that it funds. It does not fund private schools, so they do not get that service. Private schools are welcome to use their income to commission a service.

I am sorry your child was bullied but your child is still able to access the full range of NHS provision. They are not able to access the provision paid for from the local authority, any more than children from state schools can nip up and use the facilities at your private school.

it isn't. It is restricted In Schools.

It shouldn't be accessed via any school, it should he a service that dc access via their GP imo.

but you don't know (and they have probably never been told) how that service is funded. The hospital I used to work in was near a cruise port and it was paid to advise the onboard medics. When digital clinical imaging came in, images taken on the ship were sent to the hospital to be read by NHS radiologists and clinicians in the hospital. The hospital were paid per consultation and also a retainer and it was a nice little earner for the NHS.

It isn’t you can access it via your gp

That doesn’t make sense. The LA will commission the OT service for state educated kids and those with an EHCP. The private schools do not come under the LA. So do you expect the NHS to give the private schools money to then buy back the service??

This would be fair only if the private school were also given an NHS budget though for the children at their school to receive the NHS services. The access to NHS services shouldn’t be restricted according to how you choose to educate your child. That’s ludicrous.

I had a similar experience. We were mid dyslexia assessment when we moved DS to an independent school to get him away from the national curriculum structure that was destroying him. They kindly agreed to finish the assessment, as we hadn’t been aware of the implications when we moved him.
It was a long time ago, I don’t remember the full details.

That said he was at an independent school when we went for IT through the community paediatrician. So there are other routes. But it will be a different service.

So go to your GP

My understanding of this was that the OT clinic is commissioned by state schools to provide a service to them. They are not commissioned by private schools to provide that same service. Therefore, no service in this boy's case.

The state schools pay for the OT's services.

Of course a school who's not contributing to that contract, don't get the service.

It sounds to me the issue is the avenue in approaching the OT.

I imagine if the family approached the OT via GP they would of course receive the treatment needed.

This^

Retired community Occupational Therapist here and yes it is nuanced. NHS therapists can and do supply services to children in who are in private education provided the service is provided in the home or in clinics or in patient services. What they can't do is go into private schools to provide services there, although they can usually liaise with therapy services provided by the school (share reports and treatment plans and so on) with the permission of their funding authority, the school and the parents, And yes a home schooled child could get a service in the home as I have already said. Its not anything that this or the previous government have done or changed, its been like it everywhere I have worked since the mid 70's although when money was freer there may have been some allowance made by some NHS or social services fundholders. And yes I like to kick a politician as much as anybody.

Do you mean the final bullet point? That only seems to cover physical disability. Many children with SEN are educated privately due to state schools not meeting learning disabilities. Often OT can help those students too.

They have to because the service they want us attached to the school they don’t go to. If they had piano lessons for free at the stare school and then went private should they be able to rock up and bounce the state kids from their lessons in order to keep accessing them for free? Lots of local services are limited to residents. They are no linger residents of the school.

State schools get CAMHs support now too which private schools won’t. Like OT this too can be access via the GP. A total non story.

That report is very misleading and obviously written to support a particular agenda

That's a really misleading article. They are being denied a service that is provided to and in the local state schools. They need a different service provided at home or in the private school. Really, their problem is that they've chosen a school that doesn't provide the service they need. They should shop around better. It's like if I went to Sainsbury's and then complained that they don't sell Aldi chocolate.

It's not that easy in a state school to get an OT either!

They can access it via their GP.

So they can access it via their GP, a non story.

But why should they have to?

It is not an administration error.

This NHS facility ONLY treats preschool children registered with a Richmond GP or those at state school.

Their referral criteria mean they will not treat Electively Home Educated children who are residents in Richmond either.

https://www.kingstonandrichmond.nhs.uk/services/service-search-z/occupational-therapy-children-richmond

"Referrals will be considered by the service for pre-school and school aged children and young people according to the following criteria:

• Parental/carer consent is obtained
• All preschool children with a Richmond GP
• All school aged children who are residents in the Richmond or Kingston boroughs and attend a state maintained Richmond school. This includes children who have Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).
• All school aged children who are not residents in Richmond but who have a Richmond GP with primary and complex physical disabilities whose needs can be met within the clinic service."

My son is in a state school and we asked to by our school Sen to get dr's appointment to request a ot referral. My son has massive sensory issues and had been eating thing's he shouldn't and also had a echp, I couldn't get a referral. I was passed between the dr's and pediatric nurse, neither any help. It's about funding and how hard you push.

It must depend on area. We have a local Children’s Centre that specialises in speech and language and OT and some of it is delivered in the Centre, some in state schools and I think for private school kids they go to the Centre.

Just to balance this out a bit, private boarding schools, the most expensive ones as well, do get NHS treatment via GPs I think and allocated hours as such so the kids there quite often get to see the GP quite easily. Also in our area nurses definitely visit state and private schools for vaccinations.