Breathtaking incompetence or just a passive-aggressive middle finger?

[FeeLipa]

When my son was in Year 4, I was forced to remove him from his primary school after they reassigned his 1:1 support assistant to other duties during lunchtime—leaving him, a 7-year-old with Type 1 diabetes, to administer his own insulin unsupervised. Unsurprisingly, this led to several serious dosing errors.

I submitted a formal complaint to the governors, which predictably went nowhere. The panel concluded—shockingly—that a child with Type 1 diabetes doesn’t necessarily need insulin for a meal. At the disability discrimination hearing, the school argued that it wasn’t their responsibility to supervise him. The outcome? Because the school had unilaterally edited his medical care plan, it was deemed not their duty to monitor how much insulin a child was giving himself. A follow-up complaint to the Department for Education hit the same wall, as the school claimed they were meeting statutory guidance by supervising him. Completely contradicting the discrimination hearing.

Fast forward to Year 6: this week, my son's current school received a bundle of handover documents from the previous one. Apparently, they weren’t sure where to send it. Tucked inside were documents the original school conveniently left out of the court bundle—like paperwork showing how much 1:1 funding was allocated specifically for lunchtime support, and emails from the hospital clearly stating an adult should be supervising every insulin dose.

I would be taking that information to a solicitor.

The school was appallingly, dangerously negligent in the care of your dc.

Yeah, as above. This was a cover up and they know it.

I'm going to make a SAR to the department for education, but at this point I think the press might be a better option.

I think I’d raise it with my local MP and the press. That is appalling. They literally put your child’s life at risk!

Would going to the press prejudice any court hearing or similar? Go against you? I don't know.
So sorry that happened.

Maybe not a pass-agg act, but maybe someone who was secretly on your side?

I think too much time has passed to appeal the outcome to the Upper Tribunal. The only positive outcome I could get would be a very shallow apology from the school governors.

Maybe. The school has a ridiculously high staff turnover due to the SLT being complete knob heads.

What do you want to achieve? That will tell you which route to take.

Do you want an apology?
A change in procedure?
Revenge?
Compensation?

That is so shocking.

I think you need to take this further, for the sake of others who might find themself in the same predicament. It’s a serious safeguarding fail that could be repeated

I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me. A few years ago now a friend of mine actually became a TA at her child's school so she could actually manage their diabetes while the child was too young to thenselves, or otherwise it wasn't going to happen!

Are you in the T1 rights at school Facebook group? The woman who runs it is fantastic at giving advice about issues with school.

I’m so sorry to hear about your experience, as a fellow parent of a T1 is terrifying to leave them with others. A school care plan should never be changed by school, only yourself or the DSN!

@ExperiencedTeacher I wanted the school to be held accountable. An apology from the Chair of Governors in response to my complaint would have been a satisfactory outcome, and I had hoped the governing body would then fulfill its role in holding the Headteacher to account and ensuring that school policies were properly followed. By that time, however, my son was already settled into his new school but I would hate for another family to go through similar there.
The level of dishonesty in the bundle was deeply troubling, with multiple contradictions throughout—and yet, there have been no consequences.

I would still be happy with acknowledging their mistakes and an apology. Although that would never happen.

how did you get the information? they werent sure where to send it and sent it to you?

@floranectarine Yes, I am. Danni was incredibly helpful throughout the Tribunal process. Unfortunately, our outcome was significantly different from hers. In her case, the judge treated the hospital-issued medical care plan as definitive. Although the school was criticized for editing our plan without any input from me or the medical professionals who originally created it, the Tribunal accepted that version as the one officially in effect. As a result, the school was considered to have technically followed it.

@EleanorReally I’m assuming the office is currently processing paperwork for the Year 6 students transitioning to secondary school. Since they wouldn’t have known where to send it in our case, they likely forwarded it to his current primary school.

did you not have the medical letter saying they had to provide insulin in school for your case?

@EleanorReally DS was diagnosed in Reception. The hospital provided staff training, and a care plan was put in place. Given his age at the time, he received funding for an additional 1:1 support in class. In Year 4, a new Headteacher took over and made staffing changes without considering the impact of removing that essential 1:1 support. When I raised concerns that the care plan was no longer being followed—and that a 7-year-old cannot be expected to administer insulin without adult supervision—the Head responded by simply altering the care plan to state that my son should be independent.

The governors are often hostage to the information the school supply them with. Speaking from personal experience. They may never have seen the full picture either. They are volunteers with often minimal training.

I’m very sorry you have been through this.

@CrowMate The governors on the complaint panel were entirely ineffective. In my original complaint, I cited a clear example of the kind of mistakes a 7-year-old can make when left unsupervised: a missed insulin dose at lunchtime. I provided data from his insulin pump confirming that no bolus was administered at that time, along with a time-stamped graph from his continuous glucose monitor showing dangerously high blood glucose levels in the 20s after that meal. Despite this, no staff noticed or intervened that afternoon.

The panel concluded that there was no evidence of elevated glucose levels and refused to accept that the incident occurred. They claimed that a dose was not missed, but simply not needed for a large meal, and that they had written confirmation from the hospital stating he did not require supervision. However, the hospital categorically denied sending any such message and confirmed that all care must be overseen and documented by school staff. When asked to provide this alleged hospital email, the school claimed it had conveniently been 'lost'.

Was there someone on the panel with the medical experience to make that statement re: high episode and a missed dose etc?

The SEND Tribunal doesn't give compensation.

Take the documentation to a solicitor and tell the sol to instruct a barrister.

They used your funding for other purposes.

@chipsticksmammy Apart from the one-to-one, who merely stated she was following the new care plan, none of the panel members had any medical training. She failed to acknowledge that no one had monitored his glucose levels from 10 a.m. until the end of the school day.

In my complaint, I also raised concerns about the lack of staff training. Statutory guidance requires that sufficient staff be available to provide cover during sickness, but the school failed to meet this obligation.

In his witness statement to the Tribunal, the Headteacher claimed to be trained in diabetes care. Following this, I applied for an order requesting proof of his diabetes training, which the judge granted. It subsequently became clear that this claim was false.