Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a legal duty on schools, academies, and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions.
UK statutory guidance Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school details the support schools should give to pupils.
Individual Health Care Plans
Individual Healthcare Plans (IHCP) keep children and young people with medical conditions safe and well so they can play a full and active part in school life, stay healthy and fulfill their potential.
The plan sets out your child or young person's medical needs and how they should be handled in school. This can help to make things easier for everyone involved in your child's care and education so they can participate in school life.
Individual healthcare plans are written with you, your child or young person and all the people who might need to contribute to their care while at school. Other people from outside the school might also be involved, depending on the level of your child's needs, such as their GP or school health service.
NHS colleagues and the Derbyshire County Council Learning Access and Inclusion service have collaborated to produce Derbyshire Supporting Children with Medical Needs guidance, which is attached to this page.
Department for Education have prepared templates as an aid to schools. Their use is entirely voluntary. Schools are free to adapt them as they wish to meet local needs, to design their own templates, or to use templates from another source.
Template A: individual healthcare plan
Template B: parental agreement for setting to administer medicine
Template C: record of medicine administered to an individual child
Template D: record of medicine administered to all children
Template E: staff training record – administration of medicines
Template F: contacting emergency services
Template G: model letter inviting parents to contribute to individual healthcare plan development
Department for Education have also provided a list of associated resources and organisations.
Equality Act - Your Rights
Section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 states that a child or young person with a disability must not be discriminated against. In education, there are also further rights that children and young people with a learning disability have. Namely:
- the right to have 'reasonable adjustments' made to ensure that they are not at a substantial disadvantage compared with their peers
- the right to have discrimination eliminated, equality of opportunity promoted, and good relations fostered between themselves and children and young people without a disability. This should be enabled by, for example a school, college, or early years providers.
These criteria apply to any pupil with any disability including those with medical conditions that result in a disability. Children and young people who have a range of medical conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes or more severe form of asthma and eczema, are likely to be covered by the definition of disability but may not be identified as having SEN.
Disability Discrimination Tribunal - Your Rights
It's against the law for a school or other education provider to treat disabled students unfavourably. This includes:
- direct discrimination, for example refusing admission to a student or excluding them because of disability
- indirect discrimination, for example only providing application forms in one format that may not be accessible
- discrimination arising from a disability, for example a disabled pupil is prevented from going outside at break time because it takes too long to get there
- harassment, for example a teacher shouts at a disabled student for not paying attention when the student's disability stops them from easily concentrating
- victimisation, for example suspending a disabled student because they've complained about harassment
If you believe a school has discriminated against someone because of their disability, you should first follow the school's own complaints process. If this does not solve the problem, or you do not want to complain to the school first, you may be able to complain to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) tribunal.
Role of the Designated Clinical Officer for Derby and Derbyshire
The Designated Clinical Officer (DCO) role is to:
- support the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to meet its statutory responsibilities for children and young people with SEND. The SEND Code of Practice (2015) states the DCO "would not routinely be involved in assessments or planning for individuals"
- support & advise schools where needed to implement DfE guidance "supporting pupils with medical conditions at school"
- have oversight of the quality of health service contributions to the Education, Health and Care planning process.
If you would like to contact the DCO, please email: ddccg.childrenscommissioning@nhs.net
Sensory and Physical Support Services
In Derbyshire there are 3 specialist Sensory and Physical Support Services who work with schools to support pupils with the following disabilities: