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Supporting children with medical needs

Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 placed a new legal duty on all state-funded schools to put in place arrangements to allow pupils with medical needs to be fully supported within schools to enable them to participate in school activities. The legal duty was supported by statutory guidance, which provided greater detail on the duty and set out a requirement to put in place a policy to support children and young people with medical needs and for that policy to be understood and implemented by staff. Part of the policy would have been the need for a further document – individual healthcare plan – that sets out the details of the medical condition and the support required to deal with the condition. Preparation of the plan is a joint effort between schools, parents and medical professionals but schools had the responsibility to ensure that the plan was finalised and implemented.

Browne Jacobson has recently been advising on disability discrimination cases arising from an alleged failure to follow school policy or statutory guidance. In one case, the SEN and Disability Tribunal determined that the medical condition amounted to a disability and that the failure to agree the healthcare plan or implement it, was treatment that placed the child at a disadvantage and that could not be justified. The tribunal set out that the expectations in the school’s policy, as well as national guidance, were not satisfied in these circumstances and that the school had failed to take reasonable steps, including working with other relevant stakeholders such as parents and medical professionals, to put arrangements in place without unreasonable delay. Where schools are faced with complex issues, there is a need to keep discussions moving towards an agreed position that will allow the child to return to school as soon as possible.

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