Medical needs and education

If your child is too ill to attend school, you must notify the school on the first day of their absence or if you know if there is going to be a planned absence e.g. medial appointment or operation then let the school know as soon as you can.

If the absence is going to be for more than 15 days the school should notify the local authorities Inclusion Service team to help arrange your child’s education whilst they are off school. This could be delivered by any of the following or any combination depending on the needs of your child.

• School providing work to be completed at home

• Accessing education at the hospital if they are in patient

• Home tuition

Home Tuition/ Education 

A team of specialist teachers work across a range of different school settings to teach young people an age appropriate core curriculum. This includes English, Math and Science. Their aim is to make sure young people can continue to access education and allow them to return to their own school.  

• Access to a hospital school or a ‘virtual’ school

What is a Hospital school  

The Leicestershire’s Hospital school is called Willow Bank Day School. It provides an education for students aged 11-16 who are unable to access education in their own school for medical reasons.

Each student will have a personalised timetable which has been designed to meet students’ academic needs, whilst taking account of health and emotional factors. It will include the core and foundation subjects, but they also offer an Arts Award and a therapeutic curriculum, as appropriate.

Referrals to this service is on the advice of a medical professional who manages the young person’s treatment pathway.

Part-time education and timetables 

School attendance guidance 2019, from the Department of Education, state that all pupils of compulsory school age are entitled to a full-time education. However, schools are permitted to provide less than a full-time education only in very exceptional circumstances, for example, where a medical condition prevents a pupil from attending full-time education and a part-time timetable is considered as part of a re-integration package. This shouldn't be treated as a long-term plan and this plan must be reviewed on a regular basis with an end date specified of when the child will return to school.

If a pupil has a serious medical condition, where recovery is the priority outcome, these arrangements would be part of a medical plan, agreed between the school and health professionals.

Educational Officer involvement

Where education is provided outside of school, your family will have access to an education officer who will help keep you informed of the education offer, help co-ordinate the education and reviews with the school/health/other agencies and enable support for your child to re-integrate back into school.

There is no charge to parents for receiving this support as it falls within the statutory entitlement of your child’s education.

The school may ask you to provide supporting evidence from the health professionals involved with your child and they may make contact with the key health professionals with your permission. This will allow them to discuss how they can best support your child in the best way with their education whilst they are absent from school and help then help to re-integrate them back into school.

If the child’s absence is expected to be short term, then the school should hold regular meetings with the young person (if they want to be involved in the meetings and are able to participate) along with the parents/carers of the child and other professionals involved to ensure that the support in place is still appropriate and working well.  If not, then this would be the ideal time to discuss a new way forward and to devise another plan

The school should keep in regular contact with you to check on your child’s wellbeing and to see if there is any more can they do to support them but also, they will have more formal meetings with other professionals. These are called; Team around school (TAS) meetings

Team around school (TAS) meetings  

If the child’s medical condition is long and enduring the school will arrange a TAS meeting. These will be arranged with school, family, inclusion, health, social care, education effectiveness partners and other relevant professionals involved with your child. The aim of these meetings are to explore how your child can be successfully supported to engage with education, and jointly prepare an education and reintegration plan to allow the child to reach their educational potential.  They will also support the review of your child's progress.

Your child will get help to go back to school when they are ready. The local authority and school will work with you to plan their return and make sure they get all the help and support they need.  At this point you may have additional workers that support you such as the school's pastoral team, support workers within the inclusion service or from other agencies.