Our primary school says if children need medicine at specific times 'pop' in & DIY

[wonkywillow]

Surely this penalises busy working parents, with occupations where they can't just 'pop' in? Or a parent who simply has other pressing commitments..

Can schools actually do this? They seem to be negating their responsibilities towards providing education and support for children with long term medical conditions that require regular medication.

[wonkywillow]

Eolian, well, some schools manage to administer an epi pen if required. Our secondary has a consent form for this when children start in Year 7.

Sounds like the primary might well struggle though....

[grasspigeons]

Eolian

• you probably go to a school like the one where I work where a couple of staff happily volunteer and do some training and its a bit of a non-issue.

wheras my children go to a school more like OPs where its a big deal. However they do a 'supporting children with medical needs' type medicine properly as one of my children has a epipen their.

I don't know if its a lack of volunteers, an academy v Local authority thing or they had an incident and decided not to risk it anymore.

[shushpenfold]

Pananny where do the regs state that all meds given at school need double signatures? Are you talking about controlled drugs?

[SuburbanRhonda]

Of course we can administer an epi pen in primary school 🙄

[Rainbowcolours1]

Schools do have to administer meds if a failure to do so would prevent a child from accessing education. This covers conditions like Diabetes and ADHD medication.
Beyond that every school has its own policy and staff can refuse, this puts schools between a rock and a hard place.
We will administer medicines that are prescribed and need, for instance, to be given four times a day. Parents complete the necessary paperwork and staff volunteer to administer..generally TAs and office staff.
Sadly fear of accusations etc. Means that some school will do a blanket refusal beyond the required minimum.

[wonkywillow]

Of course we can administer an epi pen in primary school 🙄

No need for the emoji. Primary schools can administer other medicines or make provision for other medicines to be administered too. People start asking questions when Primaries are telling parents they should come into school to administer medicines to their children themselves.

[wonkywillow]

Means that some school will do a blanket refusal beyond the required minimum.

Yet they suggest parents should go above and beyond what is even practical. This does not bode well for good working relationships. No wonder schools are struggling to get volunteers. People will not want to help out those who will only do the minimum required themselves, or those who (somewhat dishonestly) suggest they will not be responsible for doing even that.

[user789653241]

Op, your posts are very confusing. What kind of meds are you talking about?

[wonkywillow]

Any meds, irvine. The school did not distinguish between types in their newsletter just said that if medications were required at specific times parents should 'pop' in to administer them. What is confusing you?

[grasspigeons]

i think you should probably look at their actual policy rather than a newsletter item before getting too upset or ring to chat through your specific problem.

I'm impressed you read the newsletter! I'm sure no one reads ours.

[user789653241]

Like my ds, if child needs specific meds, I thought school would normally have health care plan.

For something like occasional antibiotics, they ask us to come in, and I think it's totally reasonable, since you can adjust time to administer it so you don't need to pop in.

[wonkywillow]

i think you should probably look at their actual policy rather than a newsletter item before getting too upset or ring to chat through your specific problem.

I'm impressed you read the newsletter! I'm sure no one reads ours.

I do think it is a bit disingenuous to publish instructions to parents in a newsletter that do not comply with school policies though. Schools publishing a newsletter should expect for it to be read. A lot of parents might not question this enough to specifically request the specific policy which is not made available on their website. They might actually feel obliged to get into school to administer medicine regularly and be prevented from finding paid employment in order to be able to do this.

[SuburbanRhonda]

The emoji was for me finally biting after so many critical comments from you about school staff.

I’m out now - you didn’t respond to my post about how staff go above and beyond for the children, and I don’t trhink you’re interested in hearing anything that doesn’t support your criticisms.

[wonkywillow]

The emoji was for me finally biting after so many critical comments from you about school staff.

I’m out now - you didn’t respond to my post about how staff go above and beyond for the children, and I don’t trhink you’re interested in hearing anything that doesn’t support your criticisms.

So if a school does something wrong, it is not to be talked about unless we add a good section of material glorifying the work teachers do?

I'm sorry this thread is about establishing the provision schools should be making and whether the school in question is doing this - with regard to a related request of parents in their newsletter. Why I would add a lot of posts celebrating the good work teachers do in all of that, I don't know. It would distract from the central issue, rather, wouldn't it?

[Norestformrz]

.

[wonkywillow]

Yes, I've read the document, I quoted from earlier, mrz. Did you find something which conflicted with my posts?

[user789653241]

Tbh, I really appreciate how far the school/teachers/TAs/office staff go to accommodate my ds's medical needs.

Your post is not very clear about what you really want, or what your objective for starting this thread.

[wonkywillow]

Your post is not very clear about what you really want, or what your objective for starting this thread.

The aim of the thread is clear from my first post. I wanted to discuss what school's obligations were with regard to administering medicine to their pupils. Also I wanted to establish whether the school in question were correct to tell parents to 'pop' in to administer medicines that have to be taken at specific times.

[Namelesswonder]

My DD10 takes long term medication. One tablet mid afternoon, it's kept in the classroom and she helps herself. On a recent residential nobody batted an eyelid at the 12 tablets she takes over the day, they just asked for a signed form.

[grasspigeons]

I think the way forward is to say you have seen the newsletter and are a bit concerned that its confusing to those parents whose children have medical needs and it might stop them approaching the school for the support they need.

Then depending how frequent the newsletter is they can clarify in the next one, or the website?

It might be they need to review their procedures in which case it a good job you raised it or just a badly phrased news letter article which whilst annoying is easily sorted.

[user789653241]

But there are difference between long term meds and occasional meds.
Your posts aren't clear.

[wonkywillow]

I'm pleased I started the thread though, grass.

Comments like this:

There isn’t always give in the budget and most schools are running in skeleton mode so really can’t just ‘be more efficient’.

There is no legal obligation for schools to Administer meds.

These days, I would imagine that very few schools have the personnel 'slack' to be spending precious time administering meds

Would suggest a significant proportion of people do not believe schools need to be making provision for administering medicine (beyond getting parents in to do it)

And this:

Parents and carers should be aware that there is no contractual obligation for teachers or the
headteacher to administer medication

is misleading because, whilst school staff are not contractually obliged to administer medication, themselves, a school (itself) still has to make provision so that medication can be administered to pupils whilst they are at school.

[wonkywillow]

But there are difference between long term meds and occasional meds.
Your posts aren't clear

Because, as I said earlier, the school did not distinguish between long term and occasional meds in their newsletter.

[Cherrycokewinning]

Totally agree OP. This has nothing to do with what an amazing job teachers do teaching. However the school acts as a parent whilst the children are under their care and have a legal duty of care as per “a reasonable parent”
Can’t see how that doesn’t include administering meds.

I really don’t understand why medication takes a £3k training course to administer. I suppose that depends what we’re talking about specifically but it’s not common is it?

[wonkywillow]

Thank you, Cherry.