Use of asthma inhaler in schools - does school let you know?

[CurledUpLikeADog]

If you have a child with asthma in school, does your school let you know if they have needed to use the inhaler? I’m thinking particularly of primary schools. My child’s school has never let me know when they have needed to use the inhaler and it strikes me that it is a safeguarding risk. Luckily, my child normally tells me (I think!) but what if they didn’t? Surely this poses a risk if parents don’t know if and when the inhaler is being used. Does anyone have any experience of this? TIA

I'm not sure I've ever been told but they do keep a record of it in school (and all schools should unless child is old enough to administer themselves) so I could have requested the record.

Have you looked at the school's medicines/asthma policy as their procedure should be in there. If they aren't following it you would have grounds to make a complaint.

I would expect the parent and child to have that discussion unless other serious additional needs is at play. You can't overdose particularly on Ventolin and if you needed to know for an asthma review I would just ask them.

It isn't a safeguarding risk though, that isn't what safeguarding is about.

Depends on the age of the child, surely. You don’t mention how old your child is, but I’d expect a child of about 8+ to tell me themselves. Could you ask them to tell you if they have needed to use it at school?

My DD school never told us, even when we asked them to do so. It wasn't the risk of overdose for me, but the chance of it worsening over a day or so and being missed until ot was much worse. DD asthma is triggered by viruses, cold, and weirdly a small handful of perfumes. The cold was easy to sort out- just pull a scarf over nose & mouth. She probably used an inhaler for a few days once a month or so.

Just got into the habit of asking her.

Mine don't have asthma, but I do - I'd want to know so I could monitor in case of an exacerbation. Surely schools are supposed to communicate medication use to parents? (Assuming you're talking primary school here and it's the teacher's decision to give it rather than a DC deciding themselves at secondary.)

Never ever fuck around with asthma.

Thanks everyone.

I am talking primary and my child is in year 2 but school has never informed me when they’ve given them an inhaler and this has been done since reception. I have a chatty child but I don’t doubt for a minute that any child might forget to mention this, especially if it happens quite frequently. I am also concerned about missing an exacerbation (already had it three times this week). However, there is nothing mentioned explicitly about this in school policies. The only reference asthma is that children should be allowed to carry their own inhaler if they are able, though in practice they are kept centrally.

I do think this is about safeguarding as safeguarding is about protecting health and well-being, not just about abuse and neglect.