Hi all,
I am looking for some advice on this matter and extremely grateful for any comments or advice. My 9 year old daughter has a nut and soya allergy and carries an epipen at all times as her condition can be life threatening. Her class recently went away on a 3 day residential. My husband and I looked on the website and it stated that all dietary needs were met, they dealt with all allergies on a regular basis etc. We spoke to our daughters deputy head teacher, who was attending the trip, and he confirmed that he had contacted the centre 3 times to confirm that her needs would be met and assured us that she would be well looked after.
She went and had a great time but when we asked her what the food was like she said there had been problems. On the first night my daughter asked the food server if the pizza was "safe" for her. The lady said that no and they had a special gluten free pizza for her. When my daughter replied that she wasn't allergic to gluten and she was nut and soya free she was told that the normal pizza 'should' be ok. Not very reassuring!
Sandwiches were for lunch and my daughter questioned if the bread contained soya so the deputy head took her to the kitchen to check with the cook who got on the phone to check and found out that the bread DID contain soya and would not be suitable. She was given a Mars bar which she also questioned and again this DID contain soya and was not safe.
I don't want to go on so will just say that there were further incidents that confirm that they had some how confused my daughters allergies for a child with coliac disease , gluten free, and on her return we spoke to the deputy head who confirmed that my daughters recount was indeed correct.
We called the centre and spoke to a manger who was very defensive and would not admit any fault on their part and said that we should have sorted the food out!! We then emailed the centre with a formal complaint.
They replied 6 days later and confirmed that mistakes were made and poor excuses as to why. He ended the email with the comment " I sincerely hope the experience does put you or your child off educationally valuable residential visits in the future"
Still feeling unsatisfied with this response, we printed both emails and took them into the school this morning. The deputy head called us within an hour and apologised and arranged to speak to us tomorrow.
My question is what would be a suitable and acceptable response to this matter? I feel hugely let down and angry that this has happened as I did not want my daughter to go on the trip but had as my daughter wanted to go and it would be a good experience for her, put my issues aside and put my trust in the school and the centre
Can anybody tell me the next stage that I may be able to take this matter and how I would go about doing that?
Thank you very much for reading this