NHS is refusing treatment to children attending private schools.

Thank you Wyllow3.
When parents sign the contract to join a particular school they enter into an agreement which states that the school will provide that child with an all-around education. That does not include additional support and assessments that are done at the discretion of the Headteacher. Parents usually have to pay for these themselves, which is fair. The issue is that some schools cannot then provide the required support and are not obliged, as per the contract, to do so.
There's a whole law book for private schools on all these issues with past cases setting the precedent. I guess that is to protect independent schools from the demands of parents such as these in the DM.

* Mail on Sunday.

It was the 2014 Children and Families Act, brought in by the Conservatives, which laid out the rules for the commissioning of healthcare for children with SEND.

Maremia Look at the BBC! They have had to pay out hundreds of thousands of pounds due to the lies they have put out. I have read another article on this, reporting on the actual cases of the children denied treatment on the NHS due to them being privately educated. If true, utterly abhorrent and criminal! I await to read further news.

love0c

Maremia Look at the BBC! They have had to pay out hundreds of thousands of pounds due to the lies they have put out. I have read another article on this, reporting on the actual cases of the children denied treatment on the NHS due to them being privately educated. If true, utterly abhorrent and criminal! I await to read further news.

No, it's not criminal. Hospitals offering services such as the one in the article are following the law to the letter (as laid out in the Conservative's Children and Families Act, 2014). If they didn't do that, they would be the ones breaking the law. State schools commission the services via their local authorities or academy groups.

Growstuff I was implying 'morally criminal'. I have very strong feelings regards fair play.

love0c

Growstuff I was implying 'morally criminal'. I have very strong feelings regards fair play.

In that case, the law needs to change. That's more difficult than it might appear. Since the Conservative changes of 2011, everything in the NHS has to be commissioned - that means everything the NHS does has to be accountable to some budget or other. It would mean changing the whole financing structure of the NHS.

Local authorities and academies commission and pay for therapy services such as speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy. Local authorities and academies are only responsible for the children they educate, not those who go to private schools, unless a private school is named on an EHC plan.

Thank you growstuff for your sensible, factual post.

No hyperbole; no outrage; no disgust … just the truth and facts. If only the media would follow your lead🙈

LizzieDrip - Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!!!

It’s pretty clear that legislation is in place and maybe it’s there for a good reason.

It’s very clear though the DM headlines were very misleading

love0c

LizzieDrip - Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!!!

Why do you think that?

I've given the facts - that's all! What's "oh dear" (x3) about that?

I haven't even stated what I think about the ruling.

What I do know is that it isn't part of the Labour Party's alleged mission to destroy private schools. It was the Conservatives who brought in the legislation.

Cossy

It’s pretty clear that legislation is in place and maybe it’s there for a good reason.

It’s very clear though the DM headlines were very misleading

Yes, they are misleading. I think it's part of the battle parents/carers of children with special needs have to get treatment for their children. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that not long ago Farage was claiming that GPs are over-diagnosing children with special needs. My experience is the opposite - the rules are so convoluted that parents need endless patience, resilience and understanding to get anything done. Maybe that should have been the focus of the headline.

love0c

LizzieDrip - Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!!!

I rest my case.

growstuff

love0c

Growstuff I was implying 'morally criminal'. I have very strong feelings regards fair play.

In that case, the law needs to change. That's more difficult than it might appear. Since the Conservative changes of 2011, everything in the NHS has to be commissioned - that means everything the NHS does has to be accountable to some budget or other. It would mean changing the whole financing structure of the NHS.

Local authorities and academies commission and pay for therapy services such as speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy. Local authorities and academies are only responsible for the children they educate, not those who go to private schools, unless a private school is named on an EHC plan.

Thanks growstuff for the explanation.

In that case, the law needs to change.
I think it does. Surely a relatively wealthy country has a duty of care to all its citizens, especially children, when their medical problems affect their education, however they are educated.

After all, everyone receives a State Pension if they have paid sufficient NI contributions , even billionaires receive a bus pass whether they use it or not. Parents pay tax and NI and children should receive the medical help they need regardless of where they are educated.

And I'm going to shut up. There seems little point presenting facts.

Well, I took on board what you said and tried to be reasonable !
😀

Allira

growstuff

love0c

Growstuff I was implying 'morally criminal'. I have very strong feelings regards fair play.

In that case, the law needs to change. That's more difficult than it might appear. Since the Conservative changes of 2011, everything in the NHS has to be commissioned - that means everything the NHS does has to be accountable to some budget or other. It would mean changing the whole financing structure of the NHS.

Local authorities and academies commission and pay for therapy services such as speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy. Local authorities and academies are only responsible for the children they educate, not those who go to private schools, unless a private school is named on an EHC plan.

Thanks growstuff for the explanation.

In that case, the law needs to change.
I think it does. Surely a relatively wealthy country has a duty of care to all its citizens, especially children, when their medical problems affect their education, however they are educated.

After all, everyone receives a State Pension if they have paid sufficient NI contributions , even billionaires receive a bus pass whether they use it or not. Parents pay tax and NI and children should receive the medical help they need regardless of where they are educated.

OK! Just one more post on this topic.

The issue here is that it seems that the child's problem isn't 100% medical. It seems that the mother is worried that her child can't hold a pen properly, which is an educational issue and falls under the rules for joint commissioning. As the child attends a private school, the NHS wouldn't be paid for any assessment or therapy provided because it is the education provider (ie local authority or academy) who commissions the service.

Allira

Well, I took on board what you said and tried to be reasonable !
😀

I wasn't getting at you.

I agree that these kind of anomalies in commissioning arrangements are ridiculous.

The lines are blurred, certainly.

I've found that the help available for such a problem varied tremendously in different areas of the country over the years too.

I find it really puzzling that people are judged by the newspapers they choose to read. Smacks of rampant snobbery to me.

According to this morning’s Times the authority concerned has now apologised and retracted.

I read the article at the time too.

The line that stood out to me was this question is one that has been added in the last few years and her older child (with the same problem) got treated okay and her younger child is being treated differently. Two children in the exact same family!

I see her point - just why did that question get asked (when it never was previously)?

I'd say the question was a set-up in the first place to go and add it to the form. There specifically to give them an excuse to deny the child.

Education and healthcare type stuff are in two separate "boats"/two totally separate things - so just why should one affect the other like this?

Yep.....another one who gets fed-up with the frequently-expressed wish to pigeonhole people into being either "far left" or "far right" these days. Nope - it's the pigeonholers being lazy thinkers and not accepting that they can have one opinion on one topic and a totally different opinion on a different topic. When one has lived for some time (as many of us have by now at our age) then one can laugh at having been told an opinion was subversive/communist etc at one point in one's life and the exact same opinion expressed decades later (still unchanged) can ensure that one solitary little opinion gives someone an excuse to call the person "far right".

Nope - the person concerned may well just be one bog-standard "liberal" basically in their views....and that's what the derogatory one would find out if they really listened to them and got their views on a wide range of topics.

aonk

According to this morning’s Times the authority concerned has now apologised and retracted.

I can't access the Times website.

My understanding from other sources is that no "authority" was involved, so I'm not sure which one has retracted.

It appears that the NHS Trust has apologised for the wording of the letter, but it's still the case that the service is not available to children who don't go to a state-funded Richmond school.

"The website of the Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust, states: “Children and young people of school age can be referred via their School SENCo for assessment if they attend a state-funded Richmond school and have a Richmond or Kingston address.”

A spokesman declined to the Mail to address specific claims that private pupils had been discriminated against but “apologised if the wording in our correspondence caused upset. We are in the process of revising it to ensure greater clarity.”

He added: “Occupational therapy services are available to all school-age children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) either through the NHS or the local authority. For children without an EHCP, advice may be available through existing NHS services provided in state school.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman told the Standard: “The story is not true. NHS services are free at the point of use to all.

“NHS occupational therapy services are provided for all children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). For those without an EHCP, some schools provide on-site NHS occupational therapy.

“The Trust has apologised for any miscommunication in its correspondence with the family and is amending its wording to avoid any confusion in the future.”

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/boy-denied-treatment-nhs-hospital-private-school-kingston-richmond-b1231805.html

CariadAgain It's probable that the NHS Trust is tightening up on its application of the law, just as it is with GP registrations.

PS. I haven't "pigeon-holed" anyone and I'm not a lazy thinker. What the NHS Trust has done is apply a law introduced in 2014 and the Daily Mail has spun it to suit its own agenda.