Flu vaccination - why bother to get consent? (edited by MNHQ at request of the OP)

[Emeraldiisland]

My DS received the flu vaccine at school today without consent. My phone is rubbish and can't scan QR codes which is how the school ask you to give consent.
My fault partly as I did mean to mention it but kept forgetting.
Anyway picked him up just now and was told he'd had the vaccine, I said don't you need consent and they said I didn't not give consent. I just wonder why they ask for consent if they're going to do it anyway.
For all they know he might have had a vaccine at the doctors.
I don't want to be that parent but shouldn't they get consent? Or is it okay because I didn't not get consent?
On this occasion it doesn't matter but what if it was something I didn't want him to have?

Well, I would be rather surprised if a 3-4 stage process of independently checking and rechecking for parental consent has failed at every single stage. But I'm sure that my - misgivings - will be completely cast asunder by the significant press coverage when the school nursing service is in the news making a full public apology/paying a significant sum in compensation/the entire team is barred from practise/the service in the OP's area is closed with immediate effect and the person in charge is forced to resign as the facts are proven in court.

The letter we had from school made it very clear that no response does not equal no consent and you must reply to state no consent if that’s what you want
i did wonder how that actually works, as I’d be surprised if they can give it without actual consent but that seemed to be what was suggested

I have done the same. You log into a portal to download the list of consents, sign a waiver to state whether consent has been withdrawn and your list is given to vaccination team (using their data).
The nursing team are then checking consent status at point of vaccination. This is a nursing team error not a school admin error.

This is a disgrace and incredibly dangerous - what if your DS had an allergy? Formal complaint ASAP OP - it needs to be investigated as this is against the law. At age 4 he needs parental consent for elective treatment.

Spot on. Major failure by the health team and school.

Wow that’s bad

a couple of years ago my son forgot to hand in his form (he was 13/14) and school phoned me to get consent verbally.

Has he had the vaccine or the nasal? Is it possible that he could have made it up if he's seen other kids have it? I've consented recently for my lo to get the nasal flu but more recently a local dentist visited and we even had to consent that so my child could have his teeth checked and there were some children who were upset in their class that they weren't allowed the check up because their parents forgot to consent so my school takes this very seriously. I'm not saying it's not possible but this sounds very dangerous.

This shouldn’t have happened so needs investigating. Ask school for the contact details of the immunisation team. I am an immunisation nurse working in a team delivering school flu vaccinations. Our process involves parents completing the online consent form (or not). Both the nurses and the admin team can see the list of consents and non consents prior to the session and also on the day. We have red and green highlighted on the names for non consent and consent. We triage any medical queries. On the day ws have stick on ID labels printed off of the positive consents. Teacher or TA places the label on the child’s jumper in class. The children come down and go to our admin team desk to register. If there is no consent the child goes back to class. The children with consents then come to the nurses and we check there is consent on our laptops. We also ask the child their name and if they can’t answer e.g at age 4 we ask the teacher or staff member to confirm their name.

He can't make anything up. He's non verbal. It was the TA who told me he had the vaccine.
I don't know why certain posters are convinced I'm lying. Why would I lie about it? My life isn't that sad I have to make things up.

@Emeraldiisland it's not about you lying or not, it's the fact that this is such a serious incident that needs to be escalated that we ask further questions hoping for you that is was a just a misunderstanding. Don't get me wrong.

Did he definitely have it? As in did the TA witness it?

or did she hand him over saying “oh they all had their flu sniff today” type thing?

At our school (Scotland tho so poss different) it’s the school nursing team that do the consents and nothing to do with the school administration. So if you establish that he did have it, then find out who’s dropped the ball here.

Finally please feed back to the school that their codes thingy doesn’t work for everyone - someone probably thinks they are being super clever and forgetting not everyone will get it to work.

Sorry the comment was meant for @NeverDropYourMooncup who seems to think I'm lying. Nothing wrong with what you said at all.

I would confirm with the school office that the TA was correct, that she hadn’t just assumed he’d had it because everyone else did but she was t actually there.

Then, if it’s confirmed that he had it, I’d hit the fucking roof. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pro vaccine, my kids have just had theirs. But this would be a major fuck up and needs to be dealt with accordingly.

Please do take this up with the school. It could happen again with terrible consequences.

@Emeraldiisland What happened when you raised this today?

We were given the list of consenting children once the nurses arrived. We had no idea up until that point. I guess different trusts do it different ways

Tried to speak to the head but he was busy so I emailed him and explained that it wasn't acceptable for my child to be given a vaccine that I hadn't consent to and no consent didn't mean yes.
He was unable to see me today apparently but I do have a meeting with him tomorrow.
I have also tried to call the school nursing team. I have left a message but it feels like everyone is trying to get their stories straight before they speak to me. I feel a bit fobbed off tbh. Why am I having to spend my time chasing up someone else's mistake?

Ok you mention the TA said he had it, are they sure he definitely did and they didn't just assume? Many children will have had it so they might have simply assumed he did too. Although if non verbal, do they not have a 1:1?

Like another poster, in our school only the children with consent go to the room with the nurses and as a parent an email is sent confirming that the vaccine has been given at the end of the day.

Do you have anyone else who may have filled out the consent form instead? Not sure if you have a partner or perhaps a grandparent who does the school run?