What does a welfare officer do?

[Ipsos]

Hi,

I have to go to a meeting with my son's headmistress and the welfare officer this week, and I wondered if anyone might be able to explain what a welfare officer does? I'm mainly wondering if he has any power to help, or if he is just there to wield a bit stick when families are not trying hard enough.

For context, my son gets a lot of viruses, so his attendance isn't at the level that they want. He had obstructive apnoea as a baby, and lost a lot of sleep and has food intolerances. I'm not sure how this connects with the viruses, but I'm working very very hard on figuring it out. Ds's attainment in class is very good. His reading is very advanced and everything else is in the top of the normal range, so they are not worrying about him falling behind academically.

I get the impression that the headmistress is under a lot of pressure from the welfare officer.

Thanks!

Jennifer

I always provide medical evidence without being asked. Letter from hospital, appointment cards, discharge note from hospital, anything I think relevant.
My ds has chronic illness and weak immune system, so attendance is always in red area. But I never had school asking for meeting. They actually reassure me with hand written notes when we receive automatic red attendance letter from school, that we can just ignore it because they know the situation.

That's interesting to know that confirmation of some long term condition would help apple. It's not possible to confirm food intolerance, but I did bring evidence of the obstructive apnoea.

You can confirm food intolerance, I think?. My ds was tested for allergy as well as intolerance. Test was conducted at hospital, and result was sent as a letter.

I can't really remember what he had as a test for intolerance, but it was done at GI clinic, not an allergy clinic and involved biopsy and admission to the ward.

Gosh that sounds like hard work. It sounds as if it might have been inflammation of the bowel resulting from food intolerance that was tested for. I've taken ds to see specialists and they say that they wouldn't interfere medically with him as long as he is gaining weight well which he is. They say the school is just making a fuss about nothing and that it's considered entirely normal for a child to have 8-10 viruses a year. (Normal perhaps, but not fun, definitely).

That's interesting to know that confirmation of some long term condition would help apple.
Yes absolutely would!

Thanks Apple.

Do food intolerances count for that, and do you have any idea of what kind of proof would be needed? I've sent in letters confirming that ds had his adenoids taken out twice in toddler years and that he had obstructive apnoea. The apnoea was resolved when I took him off wheat, and I've also had had to take away most dairy, and everything with vitamins added except ready brek (probably why he gets so many viruses, lets face it.) However, I'm not aware that there is any diagnostic procedure to confirm these intolerances, short of my feeding him the stuff and inviting the EWO to stay the night.

Yes it was a hard work, but Doctors are trying to get to the bottom of it because he was getting ill all the time. Until reception, he had 3+ hospital admission a year for virus or whatever it was. Reception was the worst because after the tonsillitis, virus got into his leg muscle and became unable to walk. Yr1 and yr2 had less hospital admission and this year in yr3, none due to virus! So, as dc gets older, it gets better, I think.

Gosh! Your poor Ds. What a time you all must have had.

That's great that things are improving. That's encouraging.

My Ds does seem less exhausted by things this year. He had a bad flu virus last term but the whole school seemed to be knocked sideways by it, so at least it wasn't just us. :-)

I've just been thinking a bit more about this and there's one huge side to this that really frustrates me.

It seems to me that my ds is being failed by "the system" over and over again. For example when we go to a GP, they don't have time to listen "because of the system". If I book 5 appointments over a period of several weeks, in order to cover the whole story, then it doesn't really help. Because 6 months later the GP retires anyway, as the can't cope with their job any more "because of the system".

It's the same with the schools. My son is being working into the ground with this new curriculum and I asked the headmistress and the senco about this. They both agree that the workload is detrimental to the children's physical and mental heath. However they both agree that they can't do anything about it "because of the system". (Safeguarding issue anyone?)

This has been going on and on for 6 years now and I feel as though my son is being torn apart by the failings of the system that is meant to care for him.

The latest prize effort that the system has produced is this threatening letter that I have just received from the EWO. It is taking away my time and effort from the doing the work that I should be doing in resolving my son's health problems and playing with him to help him develop.

However I know that I have to go this meeting and be polite and tick all the boxes so that the EWO will get off my back. Just so that I can go back to doing the 28 hours of work that I do every day to make up for the failing of this astonishingly over-engineered and useless system.

I just wondered - is it me, or are other people seeing this too? Am I perhaps not working the system properly? Should I be thinking more creatively, or shouting louder and more often? Or should I be getting a private school and a private GP so as to bypass the system entirely? I'm just not sure and would be so glad to hear others' thoughts.

Thanks!

Or home educate for a while, cut out the attendance and work stress. Join some HE groups for support and friendship. It is much more mainsteam these days and with experiences like yours you can see why.

Ipsos I think you make a good point.
From our pov of view, for every parent like you who is really invested in your child's health and education, there will be another parent who doesn't give a crap, and we can't just assume you are the former. Many of the parents I work with are totally disengaged, are more interested in going out partying than making sure their teens attend school, or due to mental illness/substance misuse/other issues, their child's attendance seems very low on their priority list. Through investigation we find out a lot about a family and are able to refer or signpost for extra support. So whilst it can feel like you're being failed by the system, we'd actually be failing so many families by not acting. In your case I'm sure after the meeting you'll have a plan in place and hopefully be able to get on with it without interruption.

Hi Apple, Yes I absolutely understand what you mean, and I'm glad that you are there to find these children and help them. It always reminds me of the book Goodnight Mr Tom.

I've been thinking more about how to summarise ds's medical history for the EWO and I think I have it summarised enough to give him the information in a brief form. I was going to post it here to let you see but I think it would be TMI if mumsnet got hacked and my anonymity was lost.

Thanks so much for your help in thinking this out. It's really helping so much.

Just to clarify - my long story about the system was not meant to be a complaint about the letter. It's just that I feel that I am not pushing the right buttons in the system and wish I knew how to do it better.

Guidance for scarlet fever is to be off for 24 hours after the antibiotics are started. Why was he off for a month? I wouldn't expect that unless there was a very severe complication involving a hospital admissions. Not trying to be nasty but do you always keep him at home until he is 100% better? I think most people send kids back to schooL once they have no temp even if they aren't 100%. It is indeed normal to get 8-10 viruses a year, often all between October and April, hence only keeping them off for the minimum each time or they will never be in school!

bluecarpet, sound like her dc's gp refuse to see them and only prescribed antibiotics, from op's post. So maybe she didn't know it was ok to send dc back to school, maybe?

Yeah, I always send my ds back if he seems well enough and GP/doctor says it's ok. (the school will give them antibiotics at school.) Maybe you can try that next time, which will make attendance % better.

You can send them back after 24 hours of anti-bs if they are otherwise well, you don't just send an ill child back in regardless!

The OP's DS has underlying health issues too. It's quite likely that a scarlet fever or other illnesses may well affect him more badly. The guidelines are that you are no longer infectious 24 hrs after anti-biotics are started. That's not the same as being well enough to return to work or school.

I think at this point you will just have to go in and explain about his health issues and hope that the EWO you get will be understanding. If that turns out not to be the case, then you will have to rethink your strategy.

You might want to check with the GP before agreeing to sending in fit notes for all absences. Many won't do it because it's not a legal requirement and not an NHS service.

If you can find the DfE guidelines on this, I think they say that parents shouldn't be expected to provide fit notes. Or they did last year anyway.

Yes, if you have other issues, it will make it a lot more difficult for a child to recover fully. My ds's consultant requested that he returned to hospital a month later to have blood test done after scarlet fever, to make sure all the virus has gone and he has recovered fully.

Found it

Schools should authorise absences due to illness unless they have
genuine cause for concern about the veracity of an illness. If the authenticity of illness is
in doubt, schools can request parents to provide medical evidence to support illness.
Schools can record the absence as unauthorised if not satisfied of the authenticity of the
illness but should advise parents of their intention. Schools are advised not to request
medical evidence unnecessarily. Medical evidence can take the form of prescriptions,
appointment cards, etc. rather than doctors’ notes

Just in case you might need it for later. You don't want to end up having to pay for a fit note just because the school or LA would prefer one.

I appreciate all of that, but a month is still a hell of a long time off school with scarlet fever - a day or two for most children, a week for some who have it more, maybe two weeks for those with underlying conditions - but if it really was a full month then I can see why school are concerned (assuming your child wasn't in hospital)

The GP won't provide notes, you should get the school/EWO to write to the GP with your written consent. they are likely to have to pay a fee for a full report as this isn't an NHS service.

If you can find the DfE guidelines on this, I think they say that parents shouldn't be expected to provide fit notes
Schools can go by the 'shouldnt ask for medical evidence unnecessarily' - if a child has below expected attendance, it can be deemed necessary for med ev to be provided.

You don't need a whole sick note, jut an appointment card or a scribble from Doctor to say you attended.

Has anyone got experience of refusing to provide evidence? Just as we wouldn't accept this. We might write to medical professionals if attendance was really poor (have written to two today) to detail when they have seen the child and for further info.

After my ds had scarlet fever, I was really afraid that he may end up with other health issues, ie. heart condition etc. We are lucky in some ways, my ds has three consultants and very close contact with local and specialist hospital. So if something happened, my ds can be seen by specialist straight away. But if I didn't have this, I would be really concerned to keep him healthy, and I would keep him off school if I don't think he is totally recovered.

And when my ds had particularly bad viral infection(the one went into his muscle), after discharged from hospital, doctor advised us to keep him off school for another week. My ds's school had no problem with that, even though his attendance was already in red zone.

one more thing OP - could your son be asthmatic? a relative of mine (child) was laid up for weeks with every cold, diagnosing and treating her asthma means she is now better within days.

I think what I was trying to get at is that the OP implied (apologies if I have misread this) that her child was off for one month with scarlet fever with maybe only one GP visit. That is bound to raise concern.