To expect school to administer prescribed medication

[Heather1425]

My son is in Y4 at school, he has been prescribed antibiotic eye drops 4 times a day however the school have said they will not administer them and I have to come in but working full time 45 minutes away is impossible. Last year a similar incident happened where he was on oral antibiotics and because they were 3 times a day they said they don't give children them because they can have it once before school, once after and once before bed but when they go to out of school club until 6 then in bed at 7 this isnt exactly what a dr means by 3 times a day! Is it unreasable to expect a school to aid in keeping children well when they expect them to go in if they can?

I am a first aider in a secondary school.
It is the council’s policy - not the schools- that I am not obliged to give pupils their medication, but I do . I have to have a parent form completed , and in the case of more complex medical conditions I need a protocol from a GP or a consultant. I choose to do this because I understand otherwise it’s difficult for parents, but it is a responsibility, and to be honest quite time consuming, parents may insist of course their child will come to the first aid room at the correct time , but I don’t spend all day in that room and often have to chase round finding them .
The council would back me if I said I didn’t want to do it , but I do want to help so do my best

When was that? I have no memory of a full time nurse in any Primary school and I started school in 1959, have children, grandchildren and a career as a teacher. We had a nurse at my Grammar school but only because she was married to the Headmaster and lived on site.

My child has had regular eye drops for 3 years now and school have been extremely helpful - no way could we have coped otherwise unless one of us had given up work. Age 8 she learned to do it herself which has also helped.

"What about kids with asthma inhalers, chronic conditions requiring regular medications such as epilepsy medication, medication for things like ADHD that often require midday doses."

For children on long term medication there would need to be a care plan in place stating how/who would do it. Not administering medication in this situation could be viewed as disability discrimination. This wouldn't apply to short term medication such as a course of antibiotics.

This has become an interesting thread. What about the children who are on long term medication what would your council suggest then? I can see it from both sides the school and the parents but to have to give up your job seems extreme also as a parent.

I would expect school to administer prescribed medication. Does it really take up more of staff time to administer the medicine than have a parent come into school to administer it?

Surely if parent comes in then a member of staff has to find the child and bring them to the parent for them to administer the medicine.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/803956/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf
mid take this into school and ask the Head to read p28 where it talks about it being unacceptable to expect parents to come into school to administer medication.

You personally may not be obliged but that does not mean that the school can refuse.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/803956/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf

I would expect school to administer prescribed medication. Does it really take up more of staff time to administer the medicine than have a parent come into school to administer it?

The teacher should be teaching - what should she do with the rest of the class while doing eyedrops? A spoonful of medicine or an inhaler takes seconds.

It does take time. Whoever is giving the medication has to bring the child to the office / medical room. Retrieve the medicine from the safe place it's been housed. Check the prescription label, double check the bb dates and dosage against the permission form, find another member of staff to witness. Administer medicine, complete paperwork and both members of staff sign, return child to class / lunch.

I've done it plenty of times as teacher and a TA but I think I'd be unsure about eye drops. Hard enough with my own children!

But they’re not trained in medicine administration are they? What if they overdosed him? I can see why there’s a blanket refusal. Plus the time issue.

just do it morning, 6pm and bedtime a couple of hours later. It won’t kill him.

That guidance is for pupils with long term health conditions.

@Soontobe60 no but they’d have to find someone willing to do it ! In my experience teachers point blank refuse , luckily we don’t have a problem because all first aiders both primary and secondary are happy to help . Plus it’s nog as simple as the teacher just shoving a pupil’s medication in her drawer and remembering to give it . It has to be locked away and paperwork done , it’s a big responsibility and no mistakes can be made .

At my Ds's primary only long term medication was administered. The head told me an error had been made- parent complained to ? Health and safety ( it was a long time ago ) they were told if they made an errorbthe insurance wouldn't cover it.

High school have been happy to administer anything- paracetamol upwards.

I appreciate what you are saying but you have taken what I said out of c context, it was in response to a poster saying that their school wouldn't administer any medications.

Then obviously the school would be blamed, if there is a stuff up at home then it's an accident. Was ever the case where schools are concerned.

My DDs school wouldn't give medicines but I did have a bit of an issue when it was 4 times a day prophylactic antibiotics because DH had whooping cough.

The head finally agreed to give it to her as I worked an hour away, DPs lived 40 minutes away and while DH was close he had active whooping cough, was highly infectious and sometimes coughed so hard he fainted.

Medication 3x daily, unless prescribed at set times, can be given before school, after school and at either the child or adult's bedtime.

If the eye drops 4x daily are long term, then it would be reasonable to expect the school to administer one dose. To do this, they would need to assign or appoint staff (which might include changing contracts) and to arrange training and the appropriate sign-offs, as they would for other long-term conditions. For a short-term course of eye drops, by the time this is done, the treatment would be over.

Unfortunately, in both of the given scenarios, parents need to arrange the doses around the times when their child is with them or use whatever arrangements are in place for when the child is off school, or to get them if they are taken ill /have an accident in school, to give the medication.

Ask for a copy of the school's Administration of Medications policy. If they are not following their own policy then you might have grounds for complaint. The school will have a Complaints procedure and you should follow it in the order given, which will almost certainly not have referral to the governing body as the first step.

Do you have a relative or friend who help out? Could you and DH take it turns to work from home and pop in at lunchtime?

I’ve a teacher friend who had to do this - child would scream blue murder and thrash and flail about, and it took 20 minutes out of lesson time for weeks on end. My friend was often hit in the face.

Other parents complained about the disruption and what their kids were witnessing but the child’s parents threatened to sue if it wasn’t done.

Horrible situation all around - I’d never want to have that kind of responsibility and I doubt many teachers would.

Do students not have the right to an education in the uk? I don’t understand how a school can decline to administer prescribed medication if they do.

no, I don’t think that duty should fall to the teachers. Our schools have at least one nurse with proper medical training on staff.

as for the eye drops….

with many meds they don’t have to be spaced perfectly 6 or 8 hours apart, so we do adjust and give doses at home if possible. It minimizes disruption of education and helps our child feel more like a normal kid who isn’t constantly in the nurses office because of a chronic health condition

but if you use aftercare, that probably isn’t possible

No school staff are obliged to administer medication. If medication is prescribed 4 times a day then generally speaking this would be 4 times in a 24 hour period. Obviously, no one is likely to wake their child to medicate them though.
Most schools policies would be to administer prescribed medication (as long as it is prescribed 4 times per day). Eye drops may be different though, they're horrible to administer and staff haven't got the time to cajole the kids into having them.

In my case, it's down to me in the office to set umpteen alarms for various kids to have various medicines at various times. And then hope someone happens to pass by to co-sign.
I definitely have nothing else to do and 100 percent signed up for this as part of my admin role

There arent loads of TAs milling about waiting for something to do you know. Schools are often short staffed, there just isn’t the time to administer calpol, eye drops, whatever else. Long term meds such as diabetic meds, asthma meds, epilepsy meds are different as they would be in a long term care plan. Teachers and TAs are needed to teach. Imagine if ten of the class needed calpol, antibiotics or eye drops. Also eye drops are a nightmare.

Just a thought- I'm a TA and we do not deal with antibiotics due to staff having severe allergies (myself included). We happily deal with other medications but absolutely zero scope for antibiotics to be in school.