EpiPen for my child in school

[reallondon]

Hi all,
Hoping for a bit of advice from anyone with experience of this.
My 11-year-old son has recently been diagnosed with a nut allergy and our GP has advised that he should now have an EpiPen available for school.
I’d previously read that schools can now hold spare emergency EpiPens, so I assumed they would already have one on site as a back-up. However, when I spoke with the school, they asked me to obtain and provide the pen myself for them to keep there.
I’m not entirely sure what the guidance actually says these days.
Are schools expected to:

• keep their own emergency supply,
• only hold medication provided for individual pupils,
• or is it up to each school to decide their own policy?

We’re based in England. Would be really helpful to hear how this is managed at other schools, particularly from parents of children with severe allergies or anyone working in education. Thanks very much

Schools do sometimes have generic non-prescribed auto-injectors, but it is usual for a child with severe allergies to have their own. Some children need to keep it about their person at all times (depending on severity and range of allergies) and there would usually be one also kept by the school. This would be taken out on school trips as well. You will need to have pens prescribed by the doctor to take to school as well as having at least one at home. You may well also be asked to fill in a form so that the school understand exactly what allergies your child suffers from and how to treat any reactions. Good luck!

Your son needs to keep one on him at all times, in his school bag, sports bag, wherever as long as it is with him. And one kept with the school office, scout leader, football coach, etc.

Schools are able to obtain these, and also inhalers, to keep on site. I had one in my finance office next to the canteen and we had training on it.

Anaphylaxis UK have information on their website which may be helpful - see https://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/education/about-safer-schools-programme/

for their safer schools programme, which includes advice on what schools should do. Schools do differ on their approach and it will also likely be different between primary and secondary - given they are 11 which are they currently at?

Common sense says he needs his own in school. Imagine he is accidently exposed to his allergen in school then other will be two and in theory more than one child could be having a reaction. Or there maybe a gap inbetween one been used and it being replaced. None of these are risks anyone should be taking.

My DC's then school and now college have the same policy, which is that whilst they keep [some sort of] auto-injectors on site, each child must also deposit a set of their own Epipens in the school office/nurse's station as well as always carrying a set with them at all times. DC's prescription is always for 2 sets of Epipens, that was just how the consultant wrote it, and we were told it was precisely for this purpose.

My ds (secondary) carries her EpiPen with her at all times. The site is huge. It would take far too long for someone to contact the office and then get it sent over to the right classroom. The school may have a spare, but definitely don't rely on it.

Anything the school has is a backup. We have always supplied what our child needs for medication.

dd was prone to losing things so my approach at that age was one pack with her with an AirTag and an extra kept with the nurse just so there was one in a known fixed location. Eventually she got mature enough that we stopped bothering with the nurse backup. We still use the AirTag though.

My son is 15 and has had EpiPens with him from 3. We’ve always been prescribed two pens to be kept at school and two for home.
In primary the pens were kept in the office however the policy agreed with the allergy clinic was that school had two pens for anyone to use and that if there was another child’s pen that was closer to hand that could be used.
In secondary as it’s so much bigger, he keeps his pens with him and school have two in student support available for anyone.
We use his spare two pens as back up ones for school trips etc just in case he loses his bag. (This has happened more than once)

My DS is now at University so my school allergy experience is a little bit out of date. But when he was at primary school his class teacher looked after his EpiPens and when he was at secondary he kept his own on his person and also had a spare in the school nurse's office. Particularly at secondary school it's crucial that the child has their own immediately to hand. They're moving round the school all day and the time taken to bring an EpiPen from wherever the central supplies are kept could be far too long. I would also suggest that at least a couple your DS's friends learn where he keeps his EpiPens and that they're kept in consistent places so that they can be found quickly in an emergency. Ideally at least one should be on his person as bags can get separated from their owners, and definitely not in his locker. It's also important to remember that if an extra doses doesneed to be brought from somewhere, someone else must go for it - the person suffering the allergic reaction must not be sent to the Epipen, it needs to come to them.
Schools are now allowed to keep emergency supplies of certain medications including asthma inhalers and EpiPens. It's a relatively recent change as previously prescription only medicines had to be prescribed for a specific individual. That rule was changed to allow some organisations to hold emergency supplies but they don't have to. It is up to each school to do their own risk assessment and decide. My DH is a Governor at one of our local primary schools and I know they have decided to hold emergency inhalers but not EpiPens. I'm not sure how they made that decision but I would think pupil numbers, geography of the school and number of affected people in the school will have been amongst the factors considered. I think the improved awareness of and accessibility of anaphylaxis kits is a good thing but personally I would never rely on there being "public" kit available. If you/your child are at risk of anaphylaxis having your own adrenaline autoinjector with you needs to become as much of a habit as putting a seatbelt on in the car.

The other reason to have 2 epipens is that sometimes you need two to stop a reaction, so you should have a second pen reasonably easily accessible even if you arent carrying it on your person

Mines in primary school but he has 4 epipens at anyone time, two for home and two for school. Anything generic things cool has would just be for emergencies

In England, schools don’t have to provide an individual EpiPen, but they do have a duty to support pupils with medical needs. Most parents are asked to supply a prescribed EpiPen for their child, which the school keeps on site.
Some schools also keep a spare emergency adrenaline pen, but this is optional and varies by school policy. It’s worth asking for a written allergy care plan so everything is clearly set out.

He needs his own -the schools emergency one is for when a child needs it but hasn’t been diagnosed as needing one - ie an emergency -you know your son could need it so you need to provide one.

The GP should have added a supply of Epipens to your DSs' repeat prescriptions which can be ordered through the NHS app.

You just need to keep a note of the expiry date so that you have some more pens on order before the end of the expiry, and before they run out completely.

Epipens are a life saving drug and you never want to run out so keep an eye on your sons suplies as well as the schools.

Most pharmacies have some in stock and you just need to choose a suitable pharmacy to collect the pens from and to allow usually 5 working days for the prescription to be sent from surgery to pharmacy, for processing.

This is how I order my insulin pens.

This is going to change from September thanks to Benedict’s Law.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/stronger-protections-for-children-with-allergies-in-school

Thanks everyone, this has actually been really helpful and informative.
I completely understand now that my son should have his own prescribed EpiPens available for school and not rely solely on any emergency back-up supply the school may have.
I think part of my confusion came from reading that schools are increasingly expected to keep spare emergency adrenaline pens on site following the newer guidance/law changes. I came across this page while trying to understand it all:
https://www.clickpharmacy.co.uk/schools/adrenaline-pens-for-schools
From reading that (and the government announcement linked above), it does sound like schools are moving towards being expected to hold emergency back-up pens themselves as well, although obviously children still need their own prescribed ones.
I’ll be honest though — I was quite shocked at how expensive these can become once you’re trying to cover home, school, trips, clubs etc, especially as they expire fairly quickly too.
Really appreciate all the advice and experiences shared here 🙂

I’ve never considered the cost of the prescriptions. I’m not in England so ours are luckily free. I guess it is a pretty big expense for 4 each year.
I know when my son was smaller the nurse said lots of schools were reluctant to carry their own emergency pens as they cost around £100 for two each year.

NHS prescriptions are free in England for all under 16s and for 16-18 year olds in full time education, so given he is only 11, unless the OP's son is getting private treatment there should be no payment required.

He should definitely have one on him at all times and then have backups for him at places he goes regularly. Not as critical but that’s how we manage my daughter’s inhaler as well - she’d have one with her teacher in primary plus one in the office, now in high school she has one on her and another in the office just in case she forgets. Plus one at home. She doesn’t keep them with her dance teachers because there’s one that just lives in her dance bag. I do struggle to keep on top of all the expiration dates but with an EpiPen it will be super important so you just need a good system.

Yes, I’m puzzled by the cost thing. Prescriptions are free for DC until they leave sixth form.