At Huntingdon Academy, the well-being and welfare of our children is always our first consideration. We have recently reviewed our Supporting Pupils with Medical Needs Policy and would like to take this opportunity to update you on this matter.
The Role of Parents and Carers
Parents/carers should, wherever possible, administer or supervise the self-administration of medication to their children. This may be by spacing the doses so that they are not required within school hours, or by the parent/carer coming in to school at lunch time to administer the medication. However, this may not sometimes be practical and in such a case parents/carers may make a request for medication to be administered to their child at school.
If medicine needs to be administered during school time, then a parent or carer must bring it to the school office and fill in the Administration of Medication Permission and Record form. Medication must not be given to the class teacher, or brought into school by the child themselves. If medication is for a short term condition, any remaining medication must be collected from the office by a parent or carer at the end of the school day.
School staff will not administer any medication to pupils unless they have received a medication form properly completed and signed by the parent / guardian and the medication has been received in an appropriately labelled container.
If you have any further questions related to the administration of medication in school, please contact Mrs King, Huntingdon Academy’s Attendance and Medical Officer.
ANTIBIOTICS/PRESCRIBED MEDICATION
Parent(s) should be encouraged to ask the GP to prescribe an antibiotic which can be given outside of academy hours wherever possible. Most antibiotic medication will not need to be administered during academy hours. Twice daily doses should be given in the morning before academy and in the evening. Three times a day doses can normally be given in the morning before academy, immediately after academy (provided this is possible) and at bedtime.
It should normally only be necessary to give antibiotics in the academy if the dose needs to be given four times a day, in which case a dose is needed at lunchtime.
Parent(s) must complete the Consent Form and confirm that the pupil is not known to be allergic to the antibiotic. The antibiotic should be brought into the academy in the morning and taken home again after school each day by the parent. Whenever possible the first dose of the course, and ideally the second dose, should be administered by the parent(s).
All antibiotics must be clearly labelled with the pupil’s name, the name of the medication, the dose and the date of dispensing. In the academy the antibiotics should be stored in a secure cupboard or where necessary in a refrigerator. Many of the liquid antibiotics need to be stored in a refrigerator – if so, this will be stated on the label.
NON PRESCRIBED MEDICATION
Staff are not permitted to administer medication to a pupil that has been purchased over the counter e.g Calpol. This is classed as a non-prescribed medication.
Parents, if they wish can come into the academy at lunchtime to administer these medicines.