school administering medicines

[katiestar]

My child recently had a sprained ankle and the doctor told him to take both ibuprofen and paracetamol every four hours for 7 days ,apparently if it hurts you either walk on it funny or not at all which is not good for healing it.
The school said they have a new policy which says they can only prescribe medicine orescribed by the doctor.
So can you get doctor to prescribe neurofen and paracetamol ?

yes- but you do need to ask and tell them why

dd3 is going on a week's residential trip in two weeks time and we have just been informed of the same thing! I'm sure the doctor is going to love writing 60 prescriptions for Calpol just incase a child might need it! I'm trying to get clarification from county as it seems slightly ridiculous. Our school has never given over the counter medicines during the school day though - the parent has to come in and administer it

Many schools and LEAs have a policy of not administrating non-prescribed medicines as schools insured to do so.
Government guidance says

Non-Prescription Medicines
35. Staff should never give a non-prescribed medicine to a child unless
there is specific prior written permission from the parents. Where the head
agrees to administer a non-prescribed medicine it must be in accordance with
the employer?s policy. The employer?s policy should set out the circumstances
under which staff may administer non-prescribed medicines. Staff should
check that the medicine has been administered without adverse effect to the
child in the past and that parents have certified this is the case ? a note to this
effect should be recorded in the written parental agreement for the
school/setting to administer medicine. A short written agreement with parents
may be all that is necessary ? forms 3A and 3B (see Annex B). Criteria, in the
national standards for under 8s day care providers, make it clear that nonprescription
medicines should not normally be administered. Where a nonprescribed
medicine is administered to a child it should be recorded on a form
such as Form 5 or 6 (see Annex B) and the parents informed. If a child suffers
regularly from frequent or acute pain the parents should be encouraged to
refer the matter to the child?s GP.

That's interesting. The children are 10/11 and we have had no forms about permission to administer meds or even emergency procedures. Which is unusual I think

Double check the schools policy.

My DTDs have mesenteric Adenitis - which means that they can get severe abdomincal cramps which accompany viral infections -even the slightest cough or cold - for which they do not need to be kept home. For this they need ibuprofen to temper the pain.

I talked to teacher about this - because I do not want to keep them off for every cough or cold and was told that the school cannot administer any meds. I had also heard via another parent that they had to go in at lunchtime to administer there own child prescription ABs.

A few weeks later I was asked to collect DTD1 from school as she had a poorly tummy. I spoke to teh receptionist and just had a bit of a general chat with her and was told that there was no problem with them having painkillers at school - but asked that we only send individual measured doses and not a whole bottle.

If a child needs medication on a regular basis, the school has to give it because it has to make reasonable adjustments under the Disabiliy Discrimination Act. It's much more difficult to force them to do it with a one-off illness/injury though. However, I can't see why a teacher/other member of staff can't supervise a child taking their own medication.