My Lords, with the permission of the Grand Committee, I would like to speak sitting down. I have added my name to Amendments 67
and 68, and I will not repeat the points that my noble friend Lord Storey has already covered, although I completely agree with them.
I, too, want to focus on children with medical conditions. We have had a lot of information, but I have met three or four children with differing conditions. The problem is when schools do not recognise a medical condition. A young man aged 18 with ME had a statement, but it was for his behaviour, not for his medical condition. Even after the consultant wrote to the school, the school refused to believe that the condition existed. A girl with a congenital heart condition was taking an exam. The invigilator had not been informed about the technical equipment she had to wear, and she was pulled out of the exam. Cancer has already been mentioned. There have certainly been some serious educational support issues. I met one young lady who, in the year she had off from formal schooling, had one supportive teacher who kept in touch academically and socially. None of the others did. Home tuition via the local authority was extremely patchy and had not linked up with the school, and nor had the hospital school. As a result, the year was, in her phrase, “entirely haphazard”.
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We have already heard about a young girl who has severe allergies. A mother has written saying that she had an argument with school staff. The head and deputy head said that male members of staff could not deliver the Epipen because child protection trumped a child lying on the floor in the middle of an allergic attack. This is exactly the sort of reason why parents are so insistent that things are remedied. I am very grateful to the Minister for Amendment 241A, which starts to get there. Others have said that it would be helpful to see a draft of the code of practice because this is so wide-ranging that we need to be sure.
I have a couple of suggestions that may be helpful. Not every teacher in the country can be trained in all the different medical conditions. Why not have a handy page on direct.gov.uk and schools’ websites so that if a teacher has a child coming into their class or a tutor has a child coming into their tutor group, they can look up what happens and get some idea before they start liaising with the child and the child’s parents? Then that person would take responsibility for ensuring that other staff, including exam invigilators and PE teachers, are fully appraised of what the child can do. There should certainly be a teacher and a governor in each school with oversight of this, particularly if the duty comes into force. It may or may not be the SENCO, but there should be someone with a wider strategic view to make sure that this wide range of medical conditions is covered.
There is one issue that no one has raised so far: children with medical conditions who have some learning need during their condition. It may not be enough to warrant a full statement or education and healthcare plan, although, certainly in the case I am about to use as an example, it would have been helpful. The case is that of the young lady I met through CLIC Sargent. It would have been extremely helpful for her to have had co-ordinated educational support, but there was no
recognition of the effect that drugs, such as those used in chemotherapy, have on patients. Often there is short-term memory loss and brain fog, and with a brain tumour there can be a serious cognitive impact that may never improve. Those effects are omitted from Amendment 241A. That may be because they are not specifically included, but many parents are concerned that their children with medical conditions have learning issues that are completely left out in the cold. I hope that the boundaries that the noble Lord, Lord Low, and my noble friend Lord Storey talked about can be merged so that we can ensure that the child and the child’s needs are at the heart of what we are doing.