School under fire over diabetes boy
A Bath primary school has been forced to apologise after it failed to provide the appropriate care for a pupil with diabetes.
Ten-year-old Joel Quinn gave himself an overdose of insulin after staff at Combe Down Primary School did not supervise his treatment.
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A disability tribunal has ruled that the school continuously failed to look after Joel, who had to carry out his own blood sugar testing from the age of six and administer his own insulin from the age of eight.
The Special Educational Needs and Disability tribunal ruled that "Joel was placed at a substantial disadvantage by the school's continuing failure to adhere to the care plan."
His parents Danni and Joe said the result was "fantastic" and the case would help other children across the county suffering from type 1 diabetes.
Mrs Quinn said: "This goes on in a lot of schools across the country so this is not just for us, which is why we wanted it to be made public.
"Teachers will read this and hopefully things will change for other children as well."
On several occasions Joel forgot to administer his insulin at lunchtime and was once left unsupervised to phone his mother when he went into a hypoglycaemic state because of this.
The school was also supposed to oversee Joel washing his hands before taking his blood sugar readings and when staff failed to do this his reading endd up being inaccurate because of glucose traces on his fingers.
Because of the incorrect reading Joel then gave himself an overdose of insulin.
Mr and Mrs Quinn made six allegations of discrimination against the school, but only one was upheld.
The tribunal ruled that "the failure to follow the care plan and adequately monitor Joel placed him at an increased risk of behavioural difficulties and at a serious risk of seizure or death.
"We accept that teaching staff may feel daunted by the responsibilities in the care plan.
"However with clear guidance and appropriate systems we consider that it is not unreasonable to expect staff to oversee them."
Mr and Mrs Quinn, who live at Faulkland, removed Joel from Combe Down Primary at the end of the summer term last year and since then he has been taught at home.
A statement from the school said it had apologised to the Quinn family.
It said: "The school undertook the responsibility to remind Joel daily to test his blood sugar levels for five years and the staff gave considerable support and care to the child – for example, so that the child could take part in a residential trip, the headteacher volunteered to get up at 2am for a number of nights to oversee a nighttime blood sugar test.
"However, there were a few occasions when the school did not remind the child to either wash his hands or test his bloods.
"This is deeply regrettable and for this we are very sorry. We have already given our apologies to the child and the family concerned.
"The school has undertaken actions to ensure this doesn't happen again."
The tribunal ordered the school to send separate written apologies to Joel and his parents and to review training of staff duties under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
Care advisor at the national charity Diabetes UK Caroline Butler said that around 2,000 children were being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the UK every year and that schools should be doing all they can to help them.
She said: "Children with diabetes must be appropriately supported to manage their diabetes at school.
"For every child with diabetes who doesn't receive appropriate support at school, a whole family suffers."
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by Leanne Roberts, Falmouth, Cornwall
Sunday, May 03 2009, 7:50PM
“I currently am employed at a school near Falmouth to support a 6 year old boy with type 1 diabetes. I work as an extra TA in the class but am primarily there for this child so that his specific needs are met. This post has been pushed by the parents and thankfully the school has been very supportive. I help him with his monitoring and also help him administer his insulin injections, ensuring he has the right dose (I have worked as a nurse for many years and was very interested in this newly created post). Unfortunately my contract limps from term to term and has not been made permanent. By my being there, this young boy has a chance to learn and have a 'normal' school life, but I am aware constantly that it is temporary and that, sadly it is unusual...I am always reminded that other children in the county do not have this back up. For the staff in the school Diabetes can seem scary and there will always be those that feel the child should be (in my opinion too quickly) independant. I really believe there is a case for more posts like mine!”
by Julie Edwards, Staffordshire
Saturday, January 31 2009, 9:13PM
“Shame on this school, shame on it's LEA & shame on the Government for not legislating against the mindless negligence displayed towards this vulnerable group of children. This school has clearly learnt nothing or it would not be making such flippant comments! All these children need is people that care to lighten the load of the responsibility they bare daily.”
by Adrienne, East Sussex
Friday, January 30 2009, 4:43PM
“Hi Ron, good point. It would be interesting to hear school staff comments. It is not necessarily the actual teachers that need to be trained, teaching staff ie TA, LSAs etc can be trained. I did a training session for about 30 members of staff at my daughter's school, which included all the support staff and the teachers of the actually children with diabetes. It was to give them an idea of how serious type 1 diabetes in children is. None of them had any idea and were very grateful for the talk, they asked loads of great questions and now have an understanding of the huge responsibility the child actually has themselves so will now help to take some of that responsibility by learning to test and inject where appropriate and follow the care plans put in place. It is just common decency. Schools cannot hide behind excuses like 'not enough staff', find some or 'don't have the insurance', get some, that is also not hard, a risk assessment may need to be done but probably not. I have been very very lucky and have only come across great schools, primarily this is because the head teacher listened and believed in the first instance. If the head teacher won't help then that is the first battle and is the hardest one as the staff do as they are told from above.
I hope that reading these comments some schools can see how hard it is for these children, forget their parents for a minute, these children have a life long chronic medical condition. Maybe these head teachers should put themselves in the child's shoes for a while.
It will be interesting if any school staff reply with good or bad comments. It will be nice to hear from teaching staff who do care for a type 1 child and follow a care plan properly, the job is rewarding.”
by Ron, Bathwick
Friday, January 30 2009, 3:19PM
“Very upsetting for parents and children when medical treatment needs to be administered during the day when the child is in the care of others. I would be interested to hear the opinions of teachers who have pupils at school needing to take prescribed medication. An unsettling experience for all parties.”
by Claire, Wiltshire
Thursday, January 29 2009, 7:08PM
“Well done to the Quinn family.
I had to give up my job to look after my son due to the inability of the secondary school to cope with his diabetes.
And David, I don't think you do speak for the whole of Bath. Having grown up in Bath, and having many friends and family there, Bath does NOT 'get it'.”