AIBU to be angry that social services not investigating how my DC ate clinical waste at school?

[Weemammy21]

Got phone call from school to say my DC ate clinical waste at school and had to be taken to hospital. For context my DC has severe Sen and has a very detailed and EHCP giving school funding for 1 to 1 support to be provided through mouth the school day. Many education specialist report detailed need for constant 1 to 1 supervison and never to be left alone or unsupervised and yet DC was left alone at clinical waste bin and ate some of the contents. DC attends a private “specialist autism” school that charges an excessive amount of money for the placement. When school took DC to hospital they withheld information from the hospital that he consumed items from clinical waste bin and downplayed it to the hospital by saying he ate from a domestic bin and also refused to disclose to me or hospital what the other contents of the bin was. A day later the school disclosed that one of the items in the clinical waste bin was a used incontinence pad. When all this information was sent to LADO for school area social services have stated that they are not going to investigate it as a child protection incident as “thresholds have not been met”. I can’t understand how s child eating clinical waste at school can be dismissed as not being of sufficient concern to conduct a child protection investigation! AIBU to be super angry that
a) this happened my DC who was supposed to have constant 1/1 support
(b) the school did not take sufficient action to protect my DC whilst in their care
(c) social services LADO doesn’t think it is serious enough to instigate a child protection investigation? I removed my DC from school immediately but as no CP investigation is occurring I am very concerned for the other Sen children and their parents not knowing what occurred. Also witnessed other distressing incidents when I arrived early to collect DC from school and did notify LA of my concerns for DC safety months before it happened.

Go to the press. They’ll soon be forced to shine a spotlight on them.

Call OFSTED and report this as a safeguarding concern?

Oh my goodness, I am so sad this has happened to you both x

I thought waste bins would or at least should be inaccessible in this sort of setting. You are right asking for it to be investigated , not supervised in a clearly unsafe provision.

Ofsted (or the independent version?) is the way forward here. I'd also consider the chair of governors/trustees if you haven't already had to go to them to get LADO involved.

You could also look at the complaints process for child services in your area, I've seen major investigations triggered for less tbh.

Hope you and your DC find a resolution that works, I can imagine there's not much choice of provision out there for them so you'd hope what was available would be better than what you've sadly experienced.

I think my first question would be what is the threshold.
Even in well controlled environments accidents occur but the real concern is hiding information. What else are they hiding if that is the culture to not give information when needed. Such vulnerable students cant always tell people whats happening

It’s not social services but an Ofsted matter I would have thought?

Email your MP as well. Ours would be very interested in something like this, especially as you've already been fobbed off by the LADO.

Op. Drop me a message. I have a background in this sort of thing

Am I the only one so far who can see the schools pov on this? Eating wee/poo soaked incontinence pads from a bin is pretty extreme behaviour. It can’t be feasible to literally monitor your child every second. If you push this then I think the most likely outcome would be that they decide that they cannot accommodate the child’s needs and they’re better off leaving until a space becomes available at a more suitable school.

Did you miss the bit about the EHCP saying constant supervision and it being private specialist provision? Yes any child can, for example, jab a pencil into their eye despite supervision as it happens in a flash but to find, retrieve and then consume a pad isn't something that would happen in a moment is it?

@JenniferAlisonPhilippaSue

Am I the only one so far who can see the schools pov on this? Eating wee/poo soaked incontinence pads from a bin is pretty extreme behaviour. It can’t be feasible to literally monitor your child every second. If you push this then I think the most likely outcome would be that they decide that they cannot accommodate the child’s needs and they’re better off leaving until a space becomes available at a more suitable school.

Of course he can be watched. That's why he had a EHCP!

@Bunce1

Call OFSTED and report this as a safeguarding concern?

Ofsted won’t do anything with a safeguarding concern if it’s a one off incident they just refer it back to local authority

I don't know if this is specific to one particular area but according to this info LADO's don't investigate:
THE ROLE OF THE LADO

The role of the LADO is to be involved in the management and oversight of allegations against people who work with children. They are not responsible for undertaking investigations. They can provide advice and guidance to employers and voluntary organisations.

THE LADO does not:

undertake any investigation;
have direct communication with the person subject of the allegation;
provide advice and support to the person subject of the allegation;
provide HR advice in respect of suspension or dismissal.

You need to go through the school complaints procedure, head, governors etc if you haven't already, I think rather than LADO you might need to contact your local MASH Multi agency safe guarding hub.

A full time 1-1 is there to make sure a child IS watched all the time.

I'd recommend Ofsted and maybe the HSE, especially with it being a private school

Definitely contact the HSE and also RIDDOR, I work in a residential care home for adults with severe physical and learning disabilities and we would definitely be self reporting ourselves if this happened.

For a start the clinical waste bin should be stored in a sluice room or bin cupboard and should have a lid that only allows one way access.

I used to work in child protection and this would not be something we would investigate. We investigated things along with the police for the most part. It does need to be looked into but possibly with the regulatory body for the educational setting?

I’d report the incident to the police.

@Malibuismysecrethome

I’d report the incident to the police.

That would be a waste of time. What crime have they committed?

You should consider pursuing this as a complaint if you’re not happy about how it’s been handled.
At the very least I would expect the school to take it seriously and talk to you about updating their risk assessment and how they are going to minimise the risk of it happening again.
For me personally if they did that I’m not sure I would worry too much as to whether it was called a safeguarding investigation or not.

However if you’re not happy, you should complaint to your local councillor, MP and/or the board of governors.

Surely the point is that clinical waste bins should not be accessible to anyone other than staff?

It’s strange because in adult services, this would meet the threshold of potential neglect that needs to be looked into (under the Care Act), especially if there was supposedly 1:1 supervision in place with additional funding. Where was the 1:1 worker?

We do safeguarding investigation if someone misses a prescribed dose of paracetamol for goodness sake! (Not saying we shouldn’t… but just to give an example of how the care act threshold for over 18s with care and support needs is interpreted in my LA)

Omg op that is so truly awful. Your poor child! I can imagine how distressing it is knowing this happened. They need to be held accountable for this.

@Georgyporky

Surely the point is that clinical waste bins should not be accessible to anyone other than staff?

I didn’t think you could get into a clinical waste bin, bit like a sanitary towel bin. But YANBU where /how on earth could this happen. Hope your DC is ok.