AIBU disabled DC and school trip

[Manic20201]

My DC class is going on a school trip at the end of term. They school are refusing to take them due to disability ( tube fed )
We have had medical clearance from health team and she has a trained 1–1.
AIBU to believe ( this is now nearly 4 years of never attending a school trip ) that it’s getting ridiculous. She is so sad about it and waited a long time to go.

I'm gonna ask the stupid question because that's what MN threads are for....

Does this child only have one parent? And no other adult relatives who can help?

@lljkk

I'm gonna ask the stupid question because that's what MN threads are for....

Does this child only have one parent? And no other adult relatives who can help?

Irrelevant because it’s a school issue not a home issue

Sounds like having another domestic adult giving support would make more things possible for OP.

@lljkk

Sounds like having another domestic adult giving support would make more things possible for OP.

That’s what the 1:1 is for!

The EHCP is a legal document so if your dd has a 1to1 it is a legal requirement. They're breaking the law and discriminating against your daughter.

Not on. Oh and to the ignorant poster going on about insulin - either the child does it themselves or a trained member of staff goes. The only time ive known this not to happen I when a child developed diabetes during the academic year and the nurse couldnt get into school in time to give training to staff before the school trip. (No other diabetic children in the school at that time)

I'm shocked that we're still hearing from some 'but mum should go'. No she shouldn't. Thankfully most of the comments aren't like that and it's heartening to hear that other school staff are backing the op.

So are you going to contact the head or governors op? They are acting unlawfully.

No its not. It depends on where they are going. A school environment is totally different to a school trip to some where they have never been.

Before a school arranges any school trip, it must do a risk assessment. Unless it's somewhere they have been to before, that will include a visit to the venue. The person visiting the venue must consider all risks, including those affecting any disabled pupils. They're not venturing into some scary unknown jungle, @scrambledcustard

The OP states she has had to fight for her dds education from the start so obviously this child is classed as high risk. They have just asked that her mother attends to safeguard them all

And that is disability discrimination, given that they are funded by the LA to have a trained 1-1 TA to deal with the child. Why is it fine for parents to cope in unknown environments but not trained school employees?

She's not being excluded. They have just asked her mum to go

Are they telling non-disabled children that they can only go if their parents can leave work in the lurch and go? Apparently not. So it is clearly discriminatory and unlawful.

If she isn’t tube fed at school, what is the reason she needs a 121 and will that have an impact on her ability to stay safe or join in activities?
Clearly 121 isn’t for the tube feeding and that isn’t the reason for the refusal raptors allow her to participate.

If my child had a broken leg and the school said 'your child can't come on the trip unless a parent comes with her' - I'd go.

Hardly comparable to a child with a long term serious disability. @scrambledcustard ,would you go if (a) you were in a job where you would be letting down an awful lot of people by taking a day off and (b) you knew the school was being paid to provide a trained person who was perfectly capable of looking after your child but just wanted to use that person as an extra adult to save themselves some money?

The Equality act doesn't override Health and Safety legislations, schools still have to do risk assessments and they obviously feel it isn't safe to take her alone. That's why they have looked at other ways to ensure this child can go - they asked her mother to come.

The problem with that is their prolonged history of providing totally inadequate and unlawful excuses for not taking OP's daughter on even fairly minor outings; plus the fact that it appears that it's only a risk because they want to divert OP's 1:1 unlawfully to make up the numbers on the trip.

Ffs OP I am so pissed off for you. Surely if it is in her EHCP it is legally binding? Absolute discrimination and the values being demonstrated by the school are foul.

The OP didn't state if she was invited or declined to go. I'd imagine a child with a feeding tube - especially a stomach peg playing on climbing bars etc would be classed as high risk.

Oh, stop making things up now, @scrambledcustard. Where does it say this child is going to be climbing bars? OP specifically said it is without climbing frames. Even if it did involve climbing bars, do you seriously imagine it's beyond the wit of the 1:1 to stop her from trying and find something else interesting to do instead? Did you miss the bit where the experts treating the child have said she is not at risk going on this trip?

OP's DD is being treated less favourably because of her disability, which is against the Law, both if she is prohibited from attending the trip or if her attending the trip is conditional on her parent attending.

Take this up with your Local Authority case worker. Copy in the Head of Special Needs or Head of Education (look on the Local Offer to find the names) and your local County Councillor. If there is a parent partnership officer, copy them in as well.

Is MDT a Multi-Disciplinary Team meeting with her paediatrician? If so, bring this up at that meeting. Obviously bring up at DD's EHCP review, take advice on the EHCP wording, and check any changes agreed have been made when the Note of Amendment is issued.

(Unfortunately, I suspect the school is relying on not being called to account in time to make the necessary re-arrangements for this trip and, if anything, will respond by cancelling the whole thing. I also doubt this will be the last of this type of issue whilst the current headteacher is in post. Whether you want to take on this battle every time there is a special event or prefer to ask the LA to find another suitable school will depend on factors outside this post, but if it's an option, I wouldn't discount it.)

Another dumb question from me... if the child is never tube fed at school, why are some of her support staff trained to give her tube feeds?

It doesn't matter what the mother or the hospital have said. The school can't turn around and say 'but mum said it was ok' if there was ever a disaster. They have to do their own risk assessment completely independent of mum and hospital because the buck stops with them.

The fact that the expert medic who knows the child and her condition has said it is safe for her emphatically does matter. Apart from anything else, if the school were accused of being negligent for taking her on the trip it would provide an absolute defence. The risk assessment has to take into account medical evidence, otherwise it is in itself negligent.

Also if OP takes this to court, she will be asked why she wouldn't meet the school half way.

No she won't. Because judges in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal know perfectly well that it is discriminatory to stop a child attending a school trip unless their parent goes with them, given the well established case law that exists to that effect.

Why do you keep insisting that you know better than lawyers, judges, people with experience of supporting tube fed children on school trips, OP's child's doctors and OP, @scrambledcustard? It's really quite bizarre.

@scrambledcustard's often repeated mantra about H&S legislation not being overridden by the Equality Act is a complete red herring. The only reason the school wants OP to go is that it wants to use the 1-1 paid for by someone else to complete their complement of adults on the trip - they've already said that the 1-1 will go even if the child can't, which is totally unlawful. If they tried to cite H&S legislation as a defence in those circumstances they would be laughed out of the tribunal.

It's perfectly clear that such risk as there is is minimal and exactly what the 1-1 is trained to deal with. The school really cannot claim that it's OK to have a non-medically trained parent to look after the child but not to allocate the 1-1 provided for precisely that purpose to look after her, or that it is safer for the parent to do it than the 1-1.

This is absolutely disgraceful and needs sorting out for the long term, but for now is there anyone who can go in your place?

I go on trips to give 1:1 for a child in a different year to my boys. I can give feeds, meds, unblock or change/replace pulled out tubes in an emergency.

It's nice for the girl not to have their parent on every trip.

Is there anyone else trained to meet her needs, which don't sound like much, who can help out?

Do school actually understand what her needs are?

To the person who asked about training.
They are trained on emergency care so if tubes fall out.
She has more than one tube but not used in school.

And it's a button Op? Not a ng? So not like they have to even worry about aspirates? Maybe your ccn can help push them along too.

@lunar1

This is absolutely disgraceful and needs sorting out for the long term, but for now is there anyone who can go in your place?

Yes. The trained and paid for 1-1!!

@paradyning she has both but nothing goes down nasal one so no worry over aspiration.

Go above the headteacher and complain!
My son had a1-1 before he transferred to special education and he never missed a school trip 🤷‍♀️.
I'd be fuming and straight on it and usually I'm really laid back x

I’m horrified at the number of posters who seem to think it’s your responsibility to accompany your daughter OP . It absolutely isn’t.

This is blatant discrimination (I’m a primary teacher with SEN experience) and you have every right to push back on school and ask them how they’re going to make this work .

Firstly her 1:1 should be staying in school with her.
Secondly I'd want to see the risk assessment.
Thirdly ask in writing/email that you would like the exact reasons she cannot attend school trip and why.

You may have to look at a new primary school if this one is being so unhelpful