Accident at school

[Nurse1980]

Collected my daughter from school last week, her TA (she has SEN) said she had been quiet in the afternoon and not herself.
Got her home and she was complaining of severe of pain in one arm and she had a bruise on her back. She told me she fell over in the playground and she told a teacher. No one had mentioned this at pick up and no accident form in her bag. I rang the school at 4pm, no answer.
Pain getting worse, took her to the GP and he sent us to hospital. X-ray done and it was fractured.
Rang school the next morning. Spoke to the head. She said she would speak to staff and ring me back. Got a phone call an hour or so later to tell me that a student teacher had witnessed the fall and said my daughter had fallen on her back and that would explain the bruise and that she also fallen on her front. Apologised for not informing me at pick up and no accident form. I told her that my daughter said she did not fall on her back and I wanted it clearing up. She said they would investigate further.
Had another phone call later that afternoon to say there had been some confusion and that the fall was unwitnessed, my daughter had told a member of staff she had hurt her arm and this member of staff did nothing. But no one has seen it. They were full of apologises. They have set up a meeting between myself and the first aid TA next week to discuss how she will be supported in school.
But that’s it, case closed!
I just don’t understand how they can tell me it was witnessed and that a member of staff saw how she fell, then a couple of hours later tell me there was no witness.
Plus no accident form. They told my daughter was perfectly happy all afternoon. Yet the day of the fall her TA told me she hadn’t been herself all afternoon hmm
Plus she is supported to have 121 at breaktime, this obviously didn’t happen as it was unwitnessed. She had a bad accident at school last year too which again was unwitnessed despite having 121 via an ECHP.
It’s going round in circles in my head and I don’t know what to do

stay unemotional, ask for the timeline. and get to the bottom of where her 1-2-1 was at break time. have the school take minutes/record the meeting, ask for a signed copy of the notes. ask the school to forward them to the next level up again ask for proof it was done.
stick to your echp, point out where it states 1-2-1 at break time.
take care of your little one, i hope she feels better soon and fingers crossed it never happens again.

Does the EHCP specifically state she shoukd have 121 at break?

Hi, her EHCP doesn’t state the 121 must be there at breaktimes, but school have given me her timetable that states her TA to observe during lunchtime and the afternoon break. She gets 18.5 hours a week.
This happened last year too where it was unwitnessed and she fell over that badly she has permanently damaged her teeth.
I just can’t trust them.

She gets 18.5 hours a week.

That is half the week in many schools. If she needs care/physical support not learning then the support should be at playtime, lunchtime etc.

So play, lunch, PE would be about 10 hours a week in a primary. Does she have personal care needs? If so that would make it up to about 15 (changing/toileting X times a day)

She has social anxiety and social communication disorder, so has the 121 at lunch and break to ensure social interaction. She then has support in the afternoons for lessons.

You need to go into school and ask to see the accident book. Whilst there can be misunderstandings about what has happened, the accident should have been put down in the accident book at some stage after the accident.
What you need to establish is whether the accident was officially recorded. If not then you make an official complaint in writing to the head teacher about the lack of coherence about what happened and that appropriate actions appear to be being ignored by the school.
If it is in the accident book then you need to establish whether the 121 was with or near your child at the point of the accident. Everything is pointing to them not being there. So the question then becomes where was the 121 and were they supposed to be there then. I wonder whether what the 18 hours is covering is mainly the afternoon lessons rather than the lunchtime and that in fact pupil lunch time has also become the 121's break time. Question is whether there is funding with the EHCP plan or not. If there is then the school should be agreeing what the funding covers with you and then sticking to it.

Does she have a ECHP plan or not?

She does have an EHCP, 18.5 hours TA2 SEN week. School give her this from 11.30 daily.

If it states in her EHCP that she should have 1 to 1 for break time then is this exactly what she should have. It makes no different if the school get additional funding for this or not! you need to ask the school outright where the TA was (is your daughter able to say if the TA was there? I personally wouldnt expect to TA to shadow her btw! just there observing, that she is ok) and why she didnt witness what happened. If school say they cant provide what is in her EHCP you need to complain to your LA. It is the LA's responsibility to ensure that all provision in section F (this is where her 1 to 1 is stated isnt it?) of her EHC plan is provided.

The problem is that it doesn’t say in section F that the support should be at breaktimes and lunchtimes. But her daily individual school timetable states that her TA is with her during these times.

When's her annual review? its sounds like your ehcp needs tightening up to make it more specific. In the meantime school should be sticking to what theyve agreed. Longer term tho get her ehc plan sorted. In a school you can trust! then allowing them flexibility as to how they provide support isnt a bad thing (my son's school dont entirely stick to his ehcp, but they sway from it, in his best interests).

Her annual review is overdue! Was due three weeks ago. It’s her first one.

Have a word with the sendco, see what response you get. If needs be there is a letter template on the IPSEA website to request a review. There is also more legal based complaint templates, should you need them. Id make it clear during the review, that you would like her plan amending so that its specific and measurable.

In that case you need to request a review immediately.
Speak with the SENCO officer and see what happens next. The IPSEA website has a decent letter template to use when requesting a review for her. There are lots of other ones that are also available. If all else fails consider removing her from the school.
During the review formally request that they have to modify her plan so that they can meet her needs and provide adequate assistance. With a good special needs school flexibility can be a good thing. But this is not the case here.
Insist on a plan of action. Stick to it as much as possible. Best wishes.

Hm, if she told a teacher but 1:1 didn't know that is a worry in itself. I'm a 1:1 and occasionally you might lose track of the child for a few seconds (playgrounds are busy, children don't stay in one place, we are only human) but every member of staff knows that anything my 1:1 says/does needs to be passed on to me, so I would be asking the school why that hadn't happened.

Similar happened with my DD only it was her collarbone and the story was very much 'fall didn't look that bad, she wasn't making a fuss and didn't look hurt' after digging and much arguing with the school it turns out they were short staffed on the playground and no one saw, they'd been trying to cover their backs because it is easy to miss a broken bone and that sounds much better than not having checked it at all. I hope you get to the bottom of it.

That sounds very much like what I got told Menolly! She 121 was told as she wiped mud off m daughters face. But she didn’t tell us about it.