School refusing to give antibiotics

[Slayerofmyth]

My daughter has warts on her arm that have become infected. She has been prescribed antibiotics four times a day in liquid form that have to be kept in fridge. She has one dose upon wakening but needs 2 more doses throughout school day. I work so can't get to school to give it, theres no one else. School are refusing to give it, I've said I'll keep her off then so I can administer ( taking time off work,), they say I'll get a fine for absence. What the heck am I supposed to do? Please advise.

Either the school nurse can administer the antibiotics or you can send the nanny in to give them to her.

Simple.

@Slayerofmyth

It has to be an hour before food. Each school seems to have their own policy. I really can't afford to take time off work, my boss will not be happy, we're a very small pharmacy team. I am very mad and upset...I feel they are being deliberately difficult.

We give these Antibiotics out during mealtimes in hospital, ask the school nurse to come out and give her it.

Just get up in the night OP, you keep saying you are definitely not doing that because it inconveniences you, well the other option inconveniences the school so that's why they are saying no. It is your responsibility to ensure she has the medication therefore under the circumstances you have to get up in the night to adminster it. It's only for 10 days, many parents get up multiple times in the night to adminster medication on a regular basis and getting up in the night hasn't killed them yet.

@Mummytemping

I’m a teacher. They absolutely should be giving prescribed medicine that clearly needs to be given in the day. I’m flabbergasted by the lack of concern they are showing for her well-being and I don’t see that it would go down well with ofsted. Politely clarify but if they persist make a formal complaint. It’s either denying her medical treatment that her doctor has prescribed or it’s a illegal exclusion - neither of which are justifiable. Please don’t accept this. I know, I know how stretched we are in schools, but this isn’t a corner they should be cutting.

The child is not being denied treatment or illegally excluding. They have offered a solution - parent comes in to administer - it just doesn't work for OP.

Surely at 10 she can give it herself?

I find this attitude from the school appalling!

@Mummytemping

I’m a teacher. They absolutely should be giving prescribed medicine that clearly needs to be given in the day. I’m flabbergasted by the lack of concern they are showing for her well-being and I don’t see that it would go down well with ofsted. Politely clarify but if they persist make a formal complaint. It’s either denying her medical treatment that her doctor has prescribed or it’s a illegal exclusion - neither of which are justifiable. Please don’t accept this. I know, I know how stretched we are in schools, but this isn’t a corner they should be cutting.

As a teacher, you should know that school staff are under no obligation to administer medicines to children.

Ofsted would not be in the slightest bit concerned to find a school correctly applying the guidelines around administering medication in schools.

So many people talking about school nurses.

The school nurse comes to our school for flu jabs and to give our annual anaphylaxis and asthma training. That's 3 half days a year. They're not coming in for antibiotics...

For clarity: you don’t need to be a nurse to administer medicines. You are required to do some (very short!) training. It’s put on by LAs, academies etc regularly and is basically about reading a label and filling in the paperwork correctly to ensure one person doesn’t administer medicine and someone else gives it again mistakenly. I’ve done it. We have two people in our school who have done the training. Usually it’s a member of office staff but sometimes it’s SENCO or SEN TAs. This is basic stuff about having children in your care. Here’s even an example of the training online www.educare.co.uk/courses/administration-of-medication-in-schools

@AutomaticMoon

Or it could be split into 3 doses, one every 8 hours? Would that mean she’s at home? I hope she gets well quickly but the full course should be administered. The school staff must be very stupid or something, I don’t understand their reasoning with this being prescribed medication. Just astounding stupidity, really.

No it can’t. It’s one dose four times a day. The warning ‘take at regular intervals’ is added to the label for antibiotics because it’s important. Maximum blood levels are reached after about an hour for flucloxacillin, after 6 hours there’s very little left in your system. If you start extending that 6 hours by a lot, or on a regular basis there’s a reasonable chance you won’t kill all the bacteria, and you’ll possibly encourage antibacterial resistance. If a medication is prescribed multiple times a day it’s generally because it doesn’t stay in your system very long. For the first few days yes I set an alarm to give overnight if it can’t be avoided. If an infection is bad enough that antibiotics are needed you need to get on top of it or risk getting sicker. Always best to ask advice but in this case the only course of action seems to be a change of antibiotic because there are 2 long periods (school and overnight) when no medication can be given. Flucloxacillin comes as capsules but they are reasonably sizeable, many 10 year olds would struggle

Also @Slayerofmyth Fluox can make you have a upset tummy and vomit just in case your DD is sick with it. It's a horrible Antibiotic to take, the capsules are huge?

[quote Mummytemping]For clarity: you don’t need to be a nurse to administer medicines. You are required to do some (very short!) training. It’s put on by LAs, academies etc regularly and is basically about reading a label and filling in the paperwork correctly to ensure one person doesn’t administer medicine and someone else gives it again mistakenly. I’ve done it. We have two people in our school who have done the training. Usually it’s a member of office staff but sometimes it’s SENCO or SEN TAs. This is basic stuff about having children in your care. Here’s even an example of the training online www.educare.co.uk/courses/administration-of-medication-in-schools[/quote]
No one said you have to be a nurse.

We're replying to the PP that suggested the school nurse to do it. Which atm seem to be on par with unicorns, especially in primary.

The Department for Education guidance on this - assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/803956/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf - is that "medicines should only be administered at school when it would be detrimental to a child’s health or school attendance not to do so" and that "where clinically possible, medicines should be prescribed in dose frequencies which enable them to be taken outside school hours".

Therefore I would suggest you contact your doctor urgently to see if the dose frequency can be changed. If the answer is no, it would help if they provide a note explaining that and also explaining that the medication is required for the sake of your child's health. Then you can point out the guidance to the school and say that it would be detrimental to your child's attendance for them not to give the medication and they would be in breach of this guidance, which is statutory and therefore can't be avoided.

My granddaughter has unfortunately been on amoxicillin twice in the last couple of month’s...her nursery have quite happily administered it with full instructions and signed consent.

Think about it...many children are on regular medication at all times ..of course the school should be administering it !

This is a typical school policy in my experience (no personal connection!) www.goldershillschool.co.uk/administration-of-medicine-policy-education-health/

Whilst members of staff can’t be compelled to administer medicines (unless as is becoming more common they are hired with this in their job description and provided with training) I think there is a moral and professional imperative and thankfully my colleagues felt the same.

What happened to the days when schools had someone who did all the first aid & sick children bit plus photocopying, making tea & coffee for staff breaks & odd jobs? All primary schools used to have one. My ds secondary school are a pain in the bum over medication, wouldn't let ds administer his own migraine meds & wouldn't allow a stock to be kept in school so every time he had a migraine starting he had to be sent home instead of just taking a tablet & being able to carry on in school. Thank goodness he is in sixth form now, he doesn't mention he has his own medication & if he needs any just takes one. His school are awkward over anything needing medication, they won't even allow girls to have any painkillers for period pains in school, some of the girls ds is friends with have had to hide tablets in their bags & go in the toilets to take them without a drink. At least in sixth form there is less supervision & they can look after themselves. I would keep your dd off for the rest of the course if you can't get it changed or maybe speak to the pharmacist to ask if you could give 3 doses a day over a longer period of time.

What happened to the days when schools had someone who did all the first aid & sick children bit plus photocopying, making tea & coffee for staff breaks & odd jobs?

Government cuts to schools budgets happened.

I don’t there’s a school anywhere that doesn’t have every single member of staff having every minute of their working day accounted for and scrutinised in their appraisal.

@Nith - except it is clinically possible to prescribe a different antibiotic which is only required to be given twice a day. Personally, I would be just as angry at the thoughtless GP as the school. It does not require a great intellect to understand that it is ridiculous to prescribe a primary school aged child an antibiotic that needs to be taken every six hours if they can be prescribed one that can be taken every 12 hours.

Antibiotic "tablets" are usually capsules which are quite easy to swallow as they don't stick. My eldest has been taking adhd medication in capsule form since he was 6. We practiced with tictacs.

@IHateWinter88

You're being difficult tbh. Switch to tablets or wake her in the night. Missing 10days of school is pretty extreme and at the age of 10 she'll be missing out on loads.

Yet it was ok for her to miss out when all the teachers moaned about Covid inciting a forced lockdown !

And school nurses are area wide rather than school based, now. They might be assigned to your school for an hour, every other wednesdsy morning.

What happened to the days when schools had someone who did all the first aid & sick children bit plus photocopying, making tea & coffee for staff breaks & odd jobs?

Money and accountability, and SEN inclusion. All TA's are working with children with SEN or working with focus children to desperately improve their skills. Office staff are up to their ears in paperwork.

What happened to the days when schools had someone who did all the first aid & sick children bit plus photocopying, making tea & coffee for staff breaks & odd jobs? All primary schools used to have one.

At our school the TAs do all of those jobs - as well as supporting children who need 1:1 support, working with small groups of children and doing playground duty. Every minute spent traipsing across the school to the lockable fridge, looking for an available second member of staff, and then filling in the medical records is time that could've been used elsewhere.

Of course, many schools no longer have the budget to be able to afford TAs. Rather than lobbying MPs to try to get them to make teachers administer medicines, perhaps it would be better to lobby for bigger budgets so that schools could actually afford to have staff available to give medication when needed?

You're being difficult tbh. Switch to tablets or wake her in the night. Missing 10days of school is pretty extreme and at the age of 10 she'll be missing out on loads

It's not OP who wants her to miss out on school. It's the school disregarding clear government guidance which is potentially forcing that to happen.

This is ridiculous – I work in a school and often have to administer short-term medicines such as antibiotics/eyedrops. We have a form parents need to fill-in and sign when they bring the medication in but it is never a problem. How unsupportive of your school!