Please help

[Jadepidge]

Could anyone tell me if it's against the law for a school to refuse cater for my 7 year olds school meals?
And if so where exactly can I find this in writing to bring up with the school

 

[Steff]

Hi jade welcome .
Sounds utterly disgraceful that does I don't know if it's against the law but it must be against there rules surely they are supposed to provide a duty of care to a child that includes making sure they eat. Why have theye refused to cater for your child ,?

 

[Jadepidge]

Hi jade welcome .
Sounds utterly disgraceful that does I don't know if it's against the law but it must be against there rules surely they are supposed to provide a duty of care to a child that includes making sure they eat. Why have theye refused to cater for your child ,?

Thanks for replying .. And yes for a year now they have said she can have meals on this date and then said no then said after bank holiday time and now made another excuse.. The hospital has said its the worst school they have had to deal with this.. So desperate to know so I can have it out with them

 

[Steff]

So have you had any meetings with the head yet or anything.

 

[Jadepidge]

So have you had any meetings with the head yet or anything.

The nurses have been to the school several times to train staff

 

[Jadepidge]

The nurses have been to the school several times to train staff

Now there saying they need a photo of each meal but said there is no one who has time to take photos..
Hospital said once they sent photos and they will do the hard work of working out the carbs

 

[Grogg1]

Sorry - few questions:

1. Who is responsible for school meals at the school. Is it the school, private caterers or the Local Authority?
2. What dietary needs do you want them to accommodate

If school, then you can approach school governors who are actually in charge of school policies, not the head. The Governing body may also have a local councillor on there who may have some influence with LA etc. If Local Authority then contact them, if necessary via your local councillor. If private caters via contract direct with school, then again go to school governors. If via a council wide contract, go to Local Authority. All local authorities should have their complaints procedure on their website.

Regardless of who provides the meals all caterers in schools or private establishments have to provide a list of allergens and make it available upon request.

 

[Grogg1]

Now there saying they need a photo of each meal but said there is no one who has time to take photos..
Hospital said once they sent photos and they will do the hard work of working out the carbs

I'm assuming it's carb counting in relation to administering medication. Hopefully some Type 1 from childhood can come along and share how they managed their diabetes during their school years.

I can understand that Lunch time assistants are nervous of helping a child with dietary/medication without proper training. As type 1 is not uncommon does the LA provide a proper training course and a 1:1 assistant for meal times for pupils with additional needs who is appropriately trained?

 

[Jadepidge]

I'm assuming it's carb counting in relation to administering medication. Hopefully some Type 1 from childhood can come along and share how they managed their diabetes during their school years.

I can understand that Lunch time assistants are nervous of helping a child with dietary/medication without proper training. As type 1 is not uncommon does the LA provide a proper training course and a 1:1 assistant for meal times for pupils with additional needs who is appropriately trained?

The hospital has been to the school to train them several times but they keep making excuses... U

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Simple solution is to have the menu in advance work out the quantities and carb content then daughter takes in with her the details for that day so the right amount can be put on her plate problem solved. Even back in the 1960's/70's this was done for me with no hassle or embarrassment caused to anyone.
On leaving Jr school when it was time to say goodbye to all the teacher and staff I took a bunch of flowers into the head cook and thanked her from both my mum and I for making my school dinners so normal for me thus my school time as well. One very chuffed lady on the receiving end of those flowers 🙂 Oh and as an added bonus her cooking was out of this world. 🙂

 

[Sally71]

All schools have an inclusion policy, which states that all children must be allowed to take part in all school activities regardless of race, religion, medical conditions etc. This includes all school outings, school dinners etc. It's legally binding so if you get yourself a copy to check the wording and then start pointing out to senior staff that they are discriminating against your daughter if they don't make it possible for her to have school meals when she wants them, they should start to get a bit worried!

Also, have you filled in any school forms for special meals? At my daughter's school, they are not allowed to treat any child any differently from any other unless all the correct paperwork has been filled in stating their exact requirements and signed by a nurse/dietician. Even though my daughter doesn't actually need any different food to be prepared for her I still had to do this, once it was done I was then able to go into the school kitchens and talk to the cook, who weighed out standard portions of rice, potatoes etc so that I could work out the carbs, and I've been using that info ever since. You should also be able to get a nutritional breakdown of the meals from whoever provides the food, local council in our case, although we had an awful lot of trouble actually getting that information out of them!

I always imagined someone at school just totting up the daily total for my daughter once they knew what they were serving her, I found people very reluctant to do this though, mainly because they are terrified of what will happen to the child if they get it wrong. So rather than spend the rest of my life arguing about it I've always just done it myself, they provide a menu, I work the carbs out and send my daughter to school with a post it note in her test kit case which contains that information. My daughter is now old enough to deal with everything on her own at lunch time, but when she was younger I found the staff were quite happy to help her to use her pump as long as I provided the magic number to put into it every day. It niggles me a bit that sometimes they change the pudding without warning and don't often remember to tell me, but to be honest it's extremely rare that she's had a hypo in the afternoon which could possibly be put down to the dinner not being as specified, she's had plenty on days when the dinner was exactly as specified, so I've decided not to worry about it.

Don't know if any of that helps, but good luck in getting things sorted out for your daughter 🙂

 

[trophywench]

If you go onto the Diabetes UK website instead f this forum, and put 'schools' in the Search box - there is a whole section giving ALL the info schools need to do this properly. It's a Legal requirement in the UK so I'd think you should be complaining to the Education Authority, and getting your MP involved too !

 

[Ljc]

Hi , I found this on our diabetes website
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-t...and-diabetes/Schools/Care-in-School-Helpline/

 

[Jadepidge]

Simple solution is to have the menu in advance work out the quantities and carb content then daughter takes in with her the details for that day so the right amount can be put on her plate problem solved. Even back in the 1960's/70's this was done for me with no hassle or embarrassment caused to anyone.
On leaving Jr school when it was time to say goodbye to all the teacher and staff I took a bunch of flowers into the head cook and thanked her from both my mum and I for making my school dinners so normal for me thus my school time as well. One very chuffed lady on the receiving end of those flowers 🙂 Oh and as an added bonus her cooking was out of this world. 🙂

Me and another mother has suggested this but for some reason they keep making excuses for it to not go ahead..
Even the diabetes nurse has said they will work out the carbs so they haven't got to but for seven months they have cancelled the nurse to come which is more times than my diabetes nurse and I can think of
. I

 

[Jadepidge]

Hi , I found this on our diabetes website
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-t...and-diabetes/Schools/Care-in-School-Helpline/

Thank you

 

[Jadepidge]

All schools have an inclusion policy, which states that all children must be allowed to take part in all school activities regardless of race, religion, medical conditions etc. This includes all school outings, school dinners etc. It's legally binding so if you get yourself a copy to check the wording and then start pointing out to senior staff that they are discriminating against your daughter if they don't make it possible for her to have school meals when she wants them, they should start to get a bit worried!

Also, have you filled in any school forms for special meals? At my daughter's school, they are not allowed to treat any child any differently from any other unless all the correct paperwork has been filled in stating their exact requirements and signed by a nurse/dietician. Even though my daughter doesn't actually need any different food to be prepared for her I still had to do this, once it was done I was then able to go into the school kitchens and talk to the cook, who weighed out standard portions of rice, potatoes etc so that I could work out the carbs, and I've been using that info ever since. You should also be able to get a nutritional breakdown of the meals from whoever provides the food, local council in our case, although we had an awful lot of trouble actually getting that information out of them!

I always imagined someone at school just totting up the daily total for my daughter once they knew what they were serving her, I found people very reluctant to do this though, mainly because they are terrified of what will happen to the child if they get it wrong. So rather than spend the rest of my life arguing about it I've always just done it myself, they provide a menu, I work the carbs out and send my daughter to school with a post it note in her test kit case which contains that information. My daughter is now old enough to deal with everything on her own at lunch time, but when she was younger I found the staff were quite happy to help her to use her pump as long as I provided the magic number to put into it every day. It niggles me a bit that sometimes they change the pudding without warning and don't often remember to tell me, but to be honest it's extremely rare that she's had a hypo in the afternoon which could possibly be put down to the dinner not being as specified, she's had plenty on days when the dinner was exactly as specified, so I've decided not to worry about it.

Don't know if any of that helps, but good luck in getting things sorted out for your daughter 🙂

Thank you for your time and help