Annoyed with school

[HelpMeToHelpDD]

DD is 7, just finished year 2.

They finished for summer on Friday. DD has some medical needs which means medications are kept at school (think inhalers and pain killers plus epipens and similar – DD has severe asthma triggered by both hayfever and hot weather and also triggered by the cold weather. She’s also got an insect allergy that causes antiphalictic shock. There’s also a painful condition which school give pain relief for)

The medicines have not come home. According to DD they were in the side pouch of her bag at afternoon playtime but when I picked her up there weren’t there. I can only assume as DD keeps her water bottle in her other side pouch she’s pulled the stuff out, realised it’s not her bottle and without thinking put it down.

Without them she cannot go to holiday club. Usually I take the ones from school to holiday club then replace everything right before she goes back to school.

She’s been off holiday club this week due to not having the stuff. Next week I have a big meeting I need her in holiday club for as it’s all day and a train ride away.

DD has some SN, and in previous years they’ve either got me to pick the stuff up from the school office or handed it to me as I walk through the gates. Apparently Year 2 and up they don’t do this but with her SN I thought they’d treat her as if she was a younger child – I am assuming she put the stuff in her pouch not realising what it is, I generally don’t carry the pain relief around with me for obvious reasons so she’s probably not even recognised that.

Apparently DD is not the only child in the class to come out without her medicine. I emailed school as soon as we got in before the gates are apparently shut for pickup for the older children (Ys3-6) but got the out of office response. I then called but got a phone message saying the office is closed until September – usually the secretary works until 4.30pm and responds to message and phonecalls until about 5 minutes before that time.

I’ve called the GP to get an emergency reissue but not having much luck actually getting hold of the medicine, remembering I’d usually ask for the reissue as a general prescription so they have 6-8 weeks to source things and there’s always a few weeks leeway with her previous ones if they can’t before school starts.

I have the pain relief as it’s over the counter, and I have the physical epipens and inhalers but I’ve removed them from boxes and thrown boxes away for storage at home so I can’t even send those into holiday club and ask for them back everyday. The home ones go between here and ExHs house so not even a spare supply anywhere.

AIBU to be annoyed with school? And AIBU to ask how on earth I can get her into holiday club next week?

I’m a single parent and if I lose my job because of this then DD will be unable to continue her extra curricular activities that keep her so well and help not just her SN but her medical issues too.

Please help.

Will add here school are generally great and manage DD with her issues well. I've never had direct contact details for her teacher or I'd have emailed her instead.

You surely don’t just have one set of epipens op?? What happens if she has a reaction right now?!

@WombatChocolate

I completely agree. Something about this story doesn't make sense.

This is NOT the school’s fault, it is yours for not checking her bag before you left the school. Get your GP to write a repeat prescription!

If you disagreed with the policy of giving meds to the children to bring home, why didn’t you inform the school in advance that they weren’t to be given to your DD and you’d collect from the office or else made sure to take them straight after she came out from school.

Seems a bit odd that DD was given her medication relatively early in the school day. Even at secondary school most students are supposed to hand their medications over to the nurse/office. Surely it should have been held onto by the teacher until home time?

See if you can find the names of the governors / or safe guarding leads on their website or ask the council. The governors / safe guarding leads sometimes give out personal email addresses / phone numbers so they can be contacted directly if parents aren't happy with the school they can contact a senior person directly. These types of job roles would know how to contact the head master or mistress.

I don't know why everyone is giving you such a hard time - she's 7 and its likely this is the first time the meds have been handed back this way. I agree its odd - after school camps I had to collect my 10 year olds pain meds from the office there is no way the teacher was going to give to the child.

I also don't believe they gave a 7 year old medicine to take home. Its standard that parents go to the office to pick up medicines at the end of term. No way would they casually hand over any medication to a child to bring home themselves. Massive safeguarding issue if this is what they've done.

My son's medication stays in school over the summer and moves up with him next year. I therefore have 4 sets of his inhalers! One for home, one for school, one for his childminder and one for holiday clubs.

@HelpMeToHelpDD

Can you clarify something?

You said you thought the school would "treat her like a younger child" and not give her the meds, but instead arrange for you to collect them from the office.

But then you assumed she had been given them and had them in her bag.

How does that work?

The Head needs to be made aware that there are missing medications - dangerous medications at that - which are unaccounted for either on school premises or may have been picked up by another child. This will need to be reported to the Local Authority Children Social Care team as a safeguarding referral, the medications need to be accounted for. The consequences for a child playing with an epidemic without realising what it is are potentially catastrophic.

@Honeybeebloom

Those saying it's not the fault of the school, Im a teacher and we would get absolutely hauled over the coals for sending medication home with primary aged children (with the exception of inhalers and such). Every school I've worked in medication such as epipens are to be brought into school by an adult and handed back to an adult, they absolutely would not be getting sent home with children unless it is something that would be actually kept on the child's person anyway.

Same here - I agree! We'd physically hand it to an adult - no way we'd put meds like painkillers in such a young child's bag & let them assume responsibility!

Having said that, as a parent, with the importance of these meds, I would have checked before leaving the school on that last day.

My school would have passed them directly to you and not given them to a 7 year old

[quote DumplingsAndStew]@HelpMeToHelpDD

Can you clarify something?

You said you thought the school would "treat her like a younger child" and not give her the meds, but instead arrange for you to collect them from the office.

But then you assumed she had been given them and had them in her bag.

How does that work?[/quote]
I am having issues with this situation as presented too, there is a lot of assumptions and confusion from the OP. Additionally it is now Thursday so it's been a week since the end of term so why post now so late after the fact?

Either:

A) you expected to have to pick up the medication from the office; or

B) You expected your DD to be given the medication.

If A) then why did you not go to the office to collect the medication? They could then have either handed it over as per the usual process or informed you that they were given to DD (which would be unlikely in most places) and you could confirm they were in her bag while still on site.

If B) then since DD is still only 7, why would you not confirm she actually had the medication before you left the school site? On normal weeks when I picked DD up from primary school i would check she had her water bottle/lunchbox/jacket etc in her bag - at the end of term I made doubly sure that she had everything with her.

I only have knowledge of epipens from someone I work with but don't they have to be kept within certain temperature limits? So surely, with the weather we have had recently you should have been wanting to get her epipens out of her bag immediately to store them properly and unless you live a long way from the school you should have noticed that they were missing pretty quickly. I don't work in a school any more but I have family members who are and even on the last day of term there was someone on site till at least 5.30/6, its not like the second the last child left all the teachers locked the gates and went home so I'm surprised that there was nobody available.

Those suggesting the pharmacy just prints a new label - most pharmacies certainly would not do that.

There’s no guarantee that the item it will be affixed to is a legitimate item that we’ve dispensed, especially if it’s presented to us with no original packaging. That’s not something a team of medical professionals want their names attached to! Some might, but most wouldn’t.

Of course, if it’s an EpiPen for a child it’s safe to assume that it is legitimate and we would be able to see that it’s been dispensed previously but you never know. I’ve had a fair few patient returns that back this up e.g. street diazepam in a very legitimate looking Teva branded box and patient information leaflet. Bit of an extreme contrast to OP’s situation though! Hopefully she isn’t buying street Diazepam for her young daughter! 😂

Emergency supplies are always down to the discretion of the pharmacist. If the patient has a spare at home, I doubt many pharmacists would issue an emergency supply. It’s not like they haven’t got one at all which would obviously be a dangerous position for the patient to be in. Every area is different but in my area, the general guidance is that while the surgeries are open - they are the first port of call. Failing that, OOH. Emergency supply issued by the pharmacist is either an outcome of an OOH consultation, or as a last resort. Perhaps not ideal, but unfortunately that’s what we’re told to do. Obviously, this protocol can be ‘ignored’ if the pharmacist deems it to be a serious emergency in which a delay in therapy would be hugely detrimental to the patient (e.g. if the patient had no inhaler and was having a severe asthma attack)

I’ve had to deal with a similar situation before regarding eye drops. I provided the parent with a signed copy of the child’s repeat slip with my contact details should the school wish to confirm any details with me.

I find it shocking that they just gave the medication to a seven year old. Huge safeguarding issue there.

You’ve had some good advice OP so I hope it all works out in the end :)

I hope you manage to find a solution to the problem OP. I just wanted to comment that as someone who carries an epi pen myself I would not use the ones that have been left at school. Epi pens should ideally be stored in temps between 20-25 degrees and never in direct sunlight. You have no idea where this bag/pouch has been all this time and its been very hot in the UK.

I don't get this either. How could a 7yo be trusted with such important meds? Either by the school or you?
We finished yesterday. I had it had the forefront of my mind to make sure DS brought his glasses home as he's got a habit of leaving them at school and he'd be completely stuck in summer. So I checked as he walked out the gate.
Why on earth wouldn't you check as she was leaving?

Speaking as a school teacher, I can promise you that zero members of staff will be prepared to make a special trip into school to look for lost medicine (which could be literally anywhere), with an irate parent breathing down their neck.

If this medicine was as vital as you say, you should have checked before leaving the school. Consider it lesson learned, and instead of hassling the school, turn your attention to getting replacements.

School needs to be dragged over the coals if they've actually handed medicines to a 7yo.

The issue with epipens has been resolved, I ordered 2 for a prescription in my pharmacy yesterday and they came this morning.
The issue with auto injectors was resolved months ago.