6yr old child given medication without parental consent

[Skippy21]

After collecting my two children 11yrs and 6yrs old from a half term holiday workshop they both were happy and excited about their outdoor fun that day despite small injuries- 6yr old had a tumble and hurt his ankle. No real issues there until my 11yr old daughter said the man looking after them gave Jack (6 yr old) ‘a tablet’ 😮😮, as he had hurt his ankle and was in considerable pain crying a lot. I was utterly beside myself with shock that this would happen- Jack was given an Ibuprofen tablet -adult!! Medication- no phone call to me and no authority to administer any form of medication. Jack is ok, and dosage was within his weight range- just. The man has been suspended from his position ( guy in charge had no idea this incident had occurred!!).
Should this be reported to police?

Total over reaction. The company are dealing with it.

The man thought he was doing a good thing and you want him arrested?

Get over yourself, really.

Complete over reaction. The dose stated on the packet is actually way less than you can safely take anyway. It shouldn’t have happened but is being dealt with. Calm down!

I’d be cross but I definitely wouldn’t go to the police. The dosage was by your own admission correct, so I wouldn’t concentrate on that. He’s been suspended, he’ll likely be sacked for his stupidity. In all honesty what more do you want?

Calling police is to much but this is definitely not ok. Like a pp said my child has asthma and cannot take ibuprofen even if they could I wouldn't be happy they gave non essential medicines without my consent.

What do you want to happen OP?

Will I would assume you automatically consent to then looking after your child based on either payment or signing a contract or something for the services they are providing you? Have you read through to check there is nothing about medicinal assistance? Also? I feel people mentioning allergies is abit much, if the child had allergies the parent would surely have notified at the start on paperwork.

The man has been suspended and the company have taken very swift action, your child is fine - what more do you want? The man was only trying to help your child fed better

It’s not a crime, but it’s completely unacceptable so sounds like the organisation have reacted appropriately.

Is the club Ofsted registered? If they are you can also complain to Ofsted.

But Yellow - you’d make sure any club knew this and would have it written down on a form surely? I can’t think of any of the bloody millions of clubs, classes and residential DS had been on over the years where I haven’t had to fill out forms.

Call the police?

Oh good god.

Who is it you want charged and with what crime?

Suspending the man is appropriate. Going to the police isn’t.

The club need to tighten up their procedures. Giving medication without consent is really bad, especially when it’s something not essential like ibuprofen for a sprained ankle.

@Lordfrontpaw the norm is that the parent has to give written permission for a childcare provider to give medication, not that parents have to give a written list of medication that can’t be given.
Certainly if they are Ofsted registered, written permission is required before any medication is given.

Ibuprofen has aspirin, if it been given that as a child (or even as an adult) it could have had serious consequences. It's not the giving of the medication I would object to but the lack of checking for allergies. Personally I'd want him to be retrained not sacked and certainly not a police matter.

No consent for medication. Suspended because he gave my child a tablet, did not contact me did not tell anyone including me at pickup when he said my son had hurt his ankle. My daughter told me in the car and I went back and questioned it and the guy literally said ‘oh but his sister said it was ok’ ???

Phone the police and say what?

You left your child in the care of this man.
Your child was injured and in pain.
The adult, who you left in charge, gave him pain relief. Your child is now fine.

You've already complained to the organisation. I'll doubt he'll make the mistake of helping a child in pain again.

Thanks for the reminder OP. If I see a child in pain or distress, I'll just walk on by.

It is a safeguarding fail on the part of the organisation that a) the man didn't know he shouldn't be giving (adult) medication (or any medication, depending on small print of the forms you signed) and b) that he was administering medication on his own, without recording what was given.

I've been trained to only give medication in the presence of another adult, and to write down and (if age appropriate) get the child to write, what happened. Obviously in an emergency I wouldn't wait for forms in triplicate but this doesn't sound like that sort of emergency.

Ibuprofen has aspirin

No it doesn’t. It has ibuprofen. They are different drugs.

msmith501 I am an old fart of 51, and certainly would not have given medication to a child without checking with a parent first. You have no idea about allergies, dosages, etc. In this case, the child was just inside the weight range, but that was just luck.

When my DC were involved in school activities, we signed a consent form for medical stuff. We also had to sign separately for administration of pain relief medication.

Where a general medical consent form was used, it specified medication given by medical professionals, not a volunteer at a holiday club.

So, to sum up: your child was fine, happy in fact, about the day. The medication was appropriate. The company are investigating and have suspended the man who made an ill-judged, but well-meaning, mistake. Staff training will, no doubt, be improved.

What are you expecting the police to do?

I wouldn't have a problem with it tbh. Ww were always being given paracetamol etc at school. I dont recall anyone ever becoming seriously unwell through one pain killer.

You're just talking shite now @dizzycatdance2

There is no aspirin in ibuprofen. You can give ibuprofen from 3 months of age.

Police no. Follow up with the provider and be satisfied the took the correct action, yes.

It is a pretty serious thing though - I know at nursery even though I’d signed to say they could give calpol, they’d always call and check it was ok first. For one thing, they don’t know if the child has already had medication that day for any reason, and giving more might be an overdose.

I also teach sixth-formers and even though they’re all over 16, and a good proportion are over 18, I wouldn’t even give them one of my paracetamol from my handbag. I can’t think of any teacher who would. Honestly it’s not worth the potential issues.

How much training did this guy have? One persons commonsense is not how everyone thinks. I think the holiday club have made a string of errors in this case!

It sounds like the poor guy hadn't received proper training or he'd know not to give a six year old medication in this situation. That said no crime has been committed, the holiday club responded, no harm was done to your child (and his pain was alleviated). What are the police going to do?