School Potentially Lying About Administering Medicine

[Puttingchildrenfirst]

Hello all, looking for some advice on what to do.

My DD is 7 and currently has a serious health condition, she's been poorly for a couple of years and probably will be for many more. She requires a lot of medical care/hospital stays/specialist nursing teams etc.

To make a long story short, she is meant to take an oral medicine (tablet) in the middle of the day and this is meant to be given in school.

Since moving to her new class in September she tells me frequently that she was not given her medicine, a few times its been not at all but the majority of the time she says she is given it at home time. This happens at least once a week if not more.

She will say that she knows it was hometime because they were all lined up at the door or she was holding her bag to go or she'd just been given her reading book etc.

She's very clued up on the schedule of everything, knows all about which IV is which (she has a line in) and what tablet is what etc. A few times she's said she's reminded someone at lunch and they've said they'll do it in a minute but apparently haven't.

Now obviously I have spoken to the school multiple times, every time they have assured me that she has been administered it at the correct time and that she must be getting mixed up. I've offered to work on them with solutions (such as a digital watch with an alarm on it for her) but theyve said there's no need because she has it everyday at the right time without fail.

She's just told me again that she was given it just as she was going out the door to home as she went to take the evening dose.

What on earth do I do? Its giving me horrible anxiety thinking about it. One part of me tells me to never let her step foot in there again and the other part says shes 7 so maybe she is mixed up.

We did look a while back at alternative schools but she got so upset at the thought of leaving her friends.

Sorry I forgot about this thread!

I kept a log that showed it was being given late over 75% of the time. I also had evidence it was being forgotten completely as I sent in a specific amount and then asked for the box back which had too many doses left in.

Had a phone call with school where I gave my evidence over, they said she always got it at lunchtime and I must have miscounted (i checked and double checked, not possible).

So we have pulled her from the school and she will be going somewhere else after Easter. Ultimately they weren't interested in improving systems to stop it from happening as they were too adamant that it couldn't be happening in the first place.

Oh my gosh. That is just awful. You are a brilliant mum though, your daughter is very lucky to have you. I'm sorry they were so shit x

Please tell me you've reported to Ofsted 🤞

I work in an educational setting (alternative provision for 14-16 yes olds). There's statutory guidance for schools on how administering medication is recorded.

(Legally) There should be a paper record which states what was administered, by whom and what time and date. If it's a "controlled medication" then it needs to be a specially trained member of staff and it has to be counter signed. You could request a copy - they can black out medication issued to other students. The documents have to be filled in as medication is given (not at the end of the day/some more convenient time)

I work in a school. When medicine is administered at school a text is sent to parents to confirm the time, name and dose of medication. Ask for that every day. Then, if they lie about the time it was given (if your daughter tells you otherwise), you will have very strong grounds for a formal complaint.

Yikes! I admin the medicine in my school and I have multiple alarms set on my phone to do so. I’ve phoned and profusely apologised when I’ve inadvertently missed a dose of antibiotics so I don’t understand why they are continually missing this medicine.

our medical lead would haul me over the coals if I regularly didn’t give meds! We have to have a double signature for meds. I admin and sign and another staff member watches me and then counter signs so I’d be interested to know their policy and procedure.

I would be tempted to raise a safeguarding complaint to the head and the governors if no satisfaction!

Just seen your update! Wow!!!!! Glad you are moving her and just wow

Glad you are moving her but I would suggest talking to her medical team to see if it’s possible to have a dosing regime that doesn’t involve needing to take at school in the longer term. I had a nightmare when my dc was on 4 doses a day so one at school, in the end the dr changed the dosing because the forgot just as in your case, they suggested I came daily to administer it

Thank you all, I did consider lodging some sort of formal complaint/OFSTED but thought that as we were going it probably wouldn't be taken seriously.

We probably could have fought the matter with governors etc but ultimately her safety was our number one priority and I no longer felt it was a safe place for her to be, so I couldn't justify keeping her there while we fought it if you get what I mean?

I'll be completely honest that her health admin/ admissions take so much of my time that I really dont have the fight left in me!