Edward Timpson MP Minister of State for Children and Families The Department for Education Sanctuary Buildings Health Conditions in Schools Alliance 20 Great Smith Street c/o Thalie Martini at Diabetes UK London SW1P 3BT Macleod House 10 Parkway London NW1 7AA 26 February 2016 Dear Minister, Implementation of s.100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 The Health Conditions in Schools Alliance (the Alliance) is composed of over 35 organisations, including charities and healthcare professionals, who work collaboratively to ensure that children with health conditions get the support they require in school. It represents the needs of more than one million children with health conditions, including children living with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, migraine and heart disease. The Alliance welcomes the legal obligation enshrined in s.100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (the CFA), which has been in force since September 2014. This states that schools must make arrangements for supporting their pupils who have medical conditions, and that in meeting this duty, they must have regard to Department for Education (DfE) statutory guidance, which sets out the requirement for schools to develop and implement medical conditions policies. However, the Alliance has concerns that, despite the progress made, this duty is not being effectively or consistently implemented in practice. In June 2015, Alliance members wrote to 120 randomly selected schools across England to investigate how widely this new duty is being implemented. Schools were asked to provide their medical conditions policy, and members also checked the websites of those schools to ascertain whether they had such policies in place. Members additionally sent Freedom of Information requests to local authorities to see if they were providing template policies to support schools in implementing this duty. We found that: 78% of the schools audited in the process failed to demonstrate that they have a medical conditions policy. 46% of the schools audited which do have medical conditions policies do not have policies which are fully compliant with the legislation.
Edward Timpson MP Minister of State for Children and Families The Department for Education Sanctuary Buildings Health Conditions in Schools Alliance 20 Great Smith Street c/o Thalie Martini at Diabetes UK London SW1P 3BT Macleod House 10 Parkway London NW1 7AA 26 February 2016 Dear Minister, Implementation of s.100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 The Health Conditions in Schools Alliance (the Alliance) is composed of over 35 organisations, including charities and healthcare professionals, who work collaboratively to ensure that children with health conditions get the support they require in school. It represents the needs of more than one million children with health conditions, including children living with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, migraine and heart disease. The Alliance welcomes the legal obligation enshrined in s.100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (the CFA), which has been in force since September 2014. This states that schools must make arrangements for supporting their pupils who have medical conditions, and that in meeting this duty, they must have regard to Department for Education (DfE) statutory guidance, which sets out the requirement for schools to develop and implement medical conditions policies. However, the Alliance has concerns that, despite the progress made, this duty is not being effectively or consistently implemented in practice. In June 2015, Alliance members wrote to 120 randomly selected schools across England to investigate how widely this new duty is being implemented. Schools were asked to provide their medical conditions policy, and members also checked the websites of those schools to ascertain whether they had such policies in place. Members additionally sent Freedom of Information requests to local authorities to see if they were providing template policies to support schools in implementing this duty. We found that: 78% of the schools audited in the process failed to demonstrate that they have a medical conditions policy. 46% of the schools audited which do have medical conditions policies do not have policies which are fully compliant with the legislation.
HCSA-Letter-Minister-State.docx