Special school staff

[3littlebird5]

Hi everyone,
I wonder if there’s any other special school staff on here that are struggling.
I feel like we’ve been forgotten in all of this, there’s hardly a mention about special schools in the news and even the unions don’t help us much even though like early years we are open for all.
I have worked in a very large special school for a decade and I love it, not a day goes by that the kids don’t make me smile, it really is so rewarding. However, I am so worried now because of the overlap of education and healthcare in our job is being ignored. We carry out medical procedures such as tracheotomy suction and tube changes which is an aerosol generating procedure, gastronomy feeds, etc and a lot of personal care yet we are not being offered the vaccine like other carers and healthcare providers.
Is anyone else feeling like this?

Yes we have lft twice weekly.

We had a cluster of cases in children and adults in the first week (before lft.)

Write to your MP, copy in your LA education team. Vaccine won't be the magic stick or whatever, but it would help.

I don't work in a special school but I have a child in one and you absolutely should be priority ,my child's school remains closed to most children and whilst I absolutely understand this I am sick to the back teeth of the government saying children with EHCP,s can attend school everybody is forgetting about special school,s .

The Schoolsweek article sounds really promising. It’s frustrating that LAs are handling the issue differently, it should definitely be a blanket approach.
It is paramount that ALL children in our special schools are attending full time. The daily care involved in supporting the children we have means we should qualify for the vaccine just as it does for other carers.
If we had the vaccine it would mean we could get the children back in school faster. Having the vaccine rolled out for all special school staff would not just lower the risk of covid for staff, it would mean getting the kids back and hopefully relieving the awful pressure that has been put on their families.

Yes also work in special school.

We also got agreement with local hub for spare vaccines as our children's services department argued we are health and social care as well as education. Made an excellent point that government want us fully open because children are vulnerable due to having education health and care plan - which we have to deliver all parts and so therefore health and social care.

I've been saying on many of the school threads here about SS. No one ever actually answers the questions - it gets ignored here on mainstream school threads.

I had my vaccine this week and I do know in 3 weeks I'll definitely feel a little safer so I hope this happens nationally soon.

Not all special schools are the same though. I work in a special school (MLD) and there is very little personal care involved. We have about half of our kids in but all have been offered a place. I'm no more at risk than my mainstream friends who have 15-24 kids in their classes. Yes special school staff who administer personal care etc should definitely be treated as care staff. But I'd be embarrassed to get it on a technicality when some mainstream primary are at greater risk.

@Shadeelane

Not all special schools are the same though. I work in a special school (MLD) and there is very little personal care involved. We have about half of our kids in but all have been offered a place. I'm no more at risk than my mainstream friends who have 15-24 kids in their classes. Yes special school staff who administer personal care etc should definitely be treated as care staff. But I'd be embarrassed to get it on a technicality when some mainstream primary are at greater risk.

That sounds fair. Although it's not just personal care, which admittedly we do a lot of in pmld/sld. But do you have an behaviour issues - do you need to use any phsyical guidance or restraint etc - because that is close contact than would be in a mainstream school?

I do feel nursery staff should be offered the vaccine though if our sen settings are as they do personal care, close contact, little to no ppe. So I feel upset that I've been offered but my daughter's nursery staff who are doing the same thing but with younger kids aren't. That's not fair imo

I'm mainstream primary, but just wanted to come on here and give you my support - I really hope you get offered the vaccine very soon. The way you've been treated is dreadful.

We are MLD (ASD) and do do some personal care. Loads of close physical handling due to behaviour but also therapies, physical for sensory input. A few have to be fed due to food behaviour issues. The SLD schools are going to qualify but not us. We have 90% in.

The issue is as much the high number of staff as numbers of children in a bubble. For safety, we have 2/3 classes bubbled so there can be 6-10 staff and 20 kids working together closely.

However I'm absolutely in agreement that the sld sen staff should have them ASAP. Not least as those staff are highly specialised for those contexts; lack of staff due to SI etc is severely affecting those children and their families.

It's possible we may get some further down the line.

@TrashedWarrior

We are MLD (ASD) and do do some personal care. Loads of close physical handling due to behaviour but also therapies, physical for sensory input. A few have to be fed due to food behaviour issues. The SLD schools are going to qualify but not us. We have 90% in.

The issue is as much the high number of staff as numbers of children in a bubble. For safety, we have 2/3 classes bubbled so there can be 6-10 staff and 20 kids working together closely.

However I'm absolutely in agreement that the sld sen staff should have them ASAP. Not least as those staff are highly specialised for those contexts; lack of staff due to SI etc is severely affecting those children and their families.

It's possible we may get some further down the line.

I'm just struggling to understand why you think you shouldn't have it. I guess it's moot if it's not being offered, but I mean you're doing personal care, feeding and behaviour management. I do that in PMLD/, SEN all day every day but the fact is yours doing it and you're in very close contact with your students.

I'm trying to be very gracious about it. It sounds like they had to prioritise in the LA.

There will have been a lot of disappointment among staff (I don't see many now obviously!)

I actually can't let myself go there for sanity reasons.

It's not fair really, though the sld schools are all through (we are primary.) but, as far as I know, an MLD secondary hasn't been included. It's possible our absences haven't been as high as the SLD schools? PRUs haven't been included either.

Who knows, maybe it will change?

@TrashedWarrior

I'm trying to be very gracious about it. It sounds like they had to prioritise in the LA.

There will have been a lot of disappointment among staff (I don't see many now obviously!)

I actually can't let myself go there for sanity reasons.

It's not fair really, though the sld schools are all through (we are primary.) but, as far as I know, an MLD secondary hasn't been included. It's possible our absences haven't been as high as the SLD schools? PRUs haven't been included either.

Who knows, maybe it will change?

Well I will drop it then so as not to make it worse. I hope you get offered it soon though I've taught MLD before in am SEMH / ASD class and it's still as full on as us in SLD/PMLD. Just different

I work in a special school and we have been offered the vaccine as we are classed as 'health and social care' so 'frontline workers' (this was how we were described in a letter from our local authority). Vaccinations taking place this week.
This^ All the special needs schools I know of have offered vaccines to their staff, you should be a priority.

Not my special sld school, I will get it as an over 50 - eventually. But my younger colleagues...

I’m in AP rather than a special school but also feeling quite forgotten. We’re expected to be fully open with students who don’t follow guidelines and are up to goodness knows what when they’re not in school. I don’t feel ‘unsafe’ when I’m at work as for however many hours a day, life feels normal. But then it gets to the end of the day and all the restrictions are back. I have a health condition too so am a bit nervous. I also feel bad as my DD is going to nursery and could potentially be taking something in.

It must be very much dependent on area @Dutchesss my son's special school ,staff have not got priority for the vaccine yet and neither are they open to most children yet ,I totally understand why but it's very frustrating for everyone

Special school staff are being prioritised for vaccinations in some areas. It's being managed by the LA so it might be worth the school contacting the LA to find out.

I'm cross that actually, this inequality has been caused by the dfe.

Yes trashed, me too. The DfE could and should have written in to their guidelines that SEN schools also fall under health and social care and must therefore be prioritised in the same way as adult health and social care settings. All Local authorities would then understand their obligations and all SEN schools would be treated equally.

@mrshoho

Yes trashed, me too. The DfE could and should have written in to their guidelines that SEN schools also fall under health and social care and must therefore be prioritised in the same way as adult health and social care settings. All Local authorities would then understand their obligations and all SEN schools would be treated equally.

Absolutely agree! It should never have been left to the LAs. The DfE should’ve included special schools and early years/nurseries from the start.

@mrshoho

Yes trashed, me too. The DfE could and should have written in to their guidelines that SEN schools also fall under health and social care and must therefore be prioritised in the same way as adult health and social care settings. All Local authorities would then understand their obligations and all SEN schools would be treated equally.

Agree.

This is where dfe fecked up and also where it's obvious they don't really understand nature of schools and different schools.

They want SS fully open because the pupils are vulnerable.

They want all the things in ehcp met - fair enough.

So they should have realised if they want the education facility totally open to meet the health and social care side of it too we do come under health and social care.

Because yes. The risks are higher.

OP but as you know it's not just vaccines that we're being fucked with.

There's been NO guidance this time round. They say lockdown - all chn with EHCPs can be in school. So we have to open to everyone and I have a full class.

It's been up to the LAs to interpret that but by the time we get the LA giving the list of people they think can come in, parents obviously have gone by the "all chn with EHCPs " and we have a full school.

The gvmt to put it bluntly have a) forgotten us and b) fucked us

I've always found in my career that there is so little help for chn with SEN. Parents have to fight tooth and nail for any support, schools have to, it's just a battle ground. And this has just confirmed it to me that to the gvmt we and our amazing kids and families may as well not exist because they certainly don't see us or know what we do!

Well, as I'm sure we all know from experience, Sen schools are generally an add on.

We have to research our own methods, approaches, work with nhs OT and physio staff, work out our own curriculums.

I was in mainstream for a few years before sen I've always been shocked at how little official guidance on anything there is. And yet we are judged by ofsted in the same way as mainstream. By inspectors who may have zero coal face understanding of Sen.

Eg pivats and bsquared written by interested LAs. SCERTS. And so on.

It's the low paid tas who, without, Sen schools wouldn't function, I feel for re this patchy vaccine decision.

Anyway, @3littlebird5, the exact reasons you describe was what my LA described for their reason to vaccinate some Sen school staff. So do see about contacting the LA. (Or encourage your slt to.)