5 year old hurting himself when upset or overwhelmed, school say if it happens qgain again will take him to a&e

[Leesh222]

Hi , first time poster !
My son is 5 I reception.
I suspect he may have mild autism and/or ocd, has been displaying some tick like movements on and off for over a year.
Settles well into school but became subdued before Christmas.
Stopped using his big voice, said he was shy, would get upset over small things, hurt himself when upset or misunderstood, eg, scratch his own hand or poke himself in the cheeks with a toy, one incident he was upset and hid behind a TV at school, teachers asked him to get out as he would get hurt, he replied he wants to get hurt, and has said similar a few times, he wants to get hurt but usually only when an adult points out that he could get hurt in said situation.
Call from school today, teacher has sought advice from the new head teacher and she's says if there are any more incidents my 5 year old is to be taken to a&e to see the mental health team !
Am I wrong for thinking this is drastic? To me this while only highlight the issue to a 5 year old, if he has an incident at school and is told he must go home/hospital, surely he will thinks he naughty or something wrong with him? I am awaiting a gp appointment but it isn't for a few weeks. Any advice or kind words? As i feel such a failure and all this talk of mental health teams has me so upset and worried. Thanks

A&E?! How ridiculous.
Ask for a meeting with the SENDCo.
See if you can find the school's policies for pastoral care and SEND on the website; if you can't, ask for them.
School needs to put support in place and not just suggest A&E which is ridiculously inappropriate.

Teachers (especially with Head teacher permission/input) absolutely can take a child to A&E if they are at serious risk of harm for ANY medical reason be that mental or physical health. The school have a duty of care which is absolutely right. If the child had a physical ailment would you think the school couldn't transport them to hospital for urgent medical care?

I'm sorry but this just isn't true. The school can contact emergency services or an appropriate HCP to come to the school, but they do not have parental responsibility and they can't just turn up at hospital with OPs little boy.
The only person who can do that is:

•	the child's mother or father
•	the child's legally appointed guardian
•	a person with a residence order concerning the child
•	a local authority designated to care for the child
•	a local authority or person with an emergency protection order for the child

A teacher is none of those things. They can raise the issue with the parents though, and the parents can take it from there.

And that's straight from the NHS website. So please don't frighten OP into thinking the school can just take her child to a&e without her consent.

Something has happened to your child, he is traumatised and you need to find out a way for him to let you know what is upsetting him. He may be bullied at school or is finding it difficult to adapt to a the new environment (new teacher, new peers, new bully in the class? ) or may be reacting to new changes at home.

To be honest the GP is not going to help much, he would probably get someone from children mental health services who won’t do much more than see him from afar when they have play time. If I were you I would be setting a meeting with the headteacher to find as much details of the behaviours that are worrying them as you will need them so your GP takes you seriously.

@BuddhaForMary

Teachers (especially with Head teacher permission/input) absolutely can take a child to A&E if they are at serious risk of harm for ANY medical reason be that mental or physical health. The school have a duty of care which is absolutely right. If the child had a physical ailment would you think the school couldn't transport them to hospital for urgent medical care?

I'm sorry but this just isn't true. The school can contact emergency services or an appropriate HCP to come to the school, but they do not have parental responsibility and they can't just turn up at hospital with OPs little boy.
The only person who can do that is:

•	the child's mother or father
•	the child's legally appointed guardian
•	a person with a residence order concerning the child
•	a local authority designated to care for the child
•	a local authority or person with an emergency protection order for the child

A teacher is none of those things. They can raise the issue with the parents though, and the parents can take it from there.

And that's straight from the NHS website. So please don't frighten OP into thinking the school can just take her child to a&e without her consent.

Yes, this. It’s just not possible. That they even threatened that is incredibly worrying to me.

Ideally the school need to have preventative measures and notice before he gets to that stage.

Did he do nursery/preschool?

There won’t be access to a child psychiatrist through A&E. The Head is barking mad. And Camhs threshold is so high that it’s not certain ds would be seen as an outpatient.

What I would do is go to the GP then maybe they can refer you to child development, neurodevelopmental or whoever else a responsible for autism assessment in your area. At least get him on the path to diagnosis.

Maybe your GP, or a professional, can give the school some advice on how to handle these incidents. That can be part of a care plan and that will need to be followed by school.