NHS refusing treatment to child who attends private school.

My DD’s dyspraxia OT was done at the hospital not in school. I’m sure if he goes to the GP he can get a referral but there will be a long wait. I’m sure private like private education is an option if they don’t want to suck up the realities of the state system.

ypu Can’t get a cigarette paper between The Times and the Mail these days. It’s all very clear in the article linked in the OP.

The Times had this story this morning and there was no mention of it being a commissioned service in the reply from the NHS. So not DM only winding it up.

Must be some random administrative error. About a quarter of all pupils in the borough referred to are privately educated, so this is hardly going to be an unusual situation for the local NHS to face!

There is really no point in responding to someone who reads and believes in crap like this from the Daily Mail.

It’s obvious there’s nuance and it’s not as straightforward as the article makes is seem BUT that doesn’t mean it’s not consequential and unfair for the family involved. I think some posters are happy to hand wave it away as “commissioning or a technicality” because it doesn’t affect them. Plenty of families feel they have to fund private education only because the state system couldn’t accommodate their children’s needs. So this will seem doubly unfair.

Why would using private education mean the parents would want (or have the means) to fund private healthcare?

Kids on EHCPs, as the article clearly states.

No. If there’s an EHCP in place you won’t have to pay for help. For those not on one, there’s a (very small) provision of help via state schools.

Obviously the state schools which have to take everyone, also offer a higher degree of access to specialized care for the children in their care. You chose to move your child to a private school in order to not have to share limited resources with other children. Of course you have to pay for that.

As for the family in the story: they willingly found the money for special educational advantages why don’t they go private for health care as well?

Different areas will have services commissioned in different ways.

A Bsky thread looking into the claims

https://bsky.app/profile/monkemma.bsky.social/post/3lr3ukywync2r

What do we think?🤔
Hmm…. A Daily Mail headline so clearly designed to make you furious. Being shared by salivating Tory MPs who love a good rage farming story!
So, what’s going on here?
Let’s take a look!👀

It would be the same. Does your child have an EHCP that states SLT is needed? If not, does your current school have SLT services commissioned? If not, are the local SLT team paid to provide services to the school? If not, then yes you’d have to pay.

It makes the political slant placed on it inaccurate.

If private schools in an area wanted to band together and commission the local authority school nurses to visit their pupils, they could do that.

Surely the school should provide it if it relates to OT within that school environment?

The state schools get it through a scheme funded by the NHS but Indi don't because they're meant to supply it as part of their own school fee/offering.

If you were to say the kid was home schooled, would it be offered to them then? Just out of interest.

Absolute rubbish! I work in private and we have NHS OT’s come to visit kids on a regular basis.

This is total spin to suit an agenda. I doubt most Daily Fail readers will get past the sensationalist headline, they usually don't.

You don’t have to pay for your child’s healthcare. But there are NHS services that are commissioned by the local education authority. This will cover state schools. If private schools wish to access the service too then they themselves will have to commission it.

it’s a similar situation for older people and OT equipment in some areas. If they are in their own home, equipment is provided through NHS / social services. If they are in residential care, the home has to fund it.

Does this make it right?

Bet this pre dates the Labour government. I worked in school nursing under the Conservative government, the school nurses didn’t take referrals from the private schools either because they aren’t commissioned to do so.

If my child needed SALT how would they access it without me paying though?

@Findra
That sounds like an awful experience and my DC were/are at Private schools BUT if you read the article carefully you will see that (unlike VAT) this is not actually another attack of Parents like us.
Its a non event and designed for maximum frothing

She could take him out of his prep school, wait long time that it takes to get a ECHP, then get it for free. That’s the process for everyone.

Complete nonsense as others have said.

State schools need to be able to provide basic safeguarding before financially penalising those forced to opt out. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.