A third of school support staff are giving medical support – such as helping with tube feeding or colostomy bags – without adequate training, a horrifying poll has found
A teaching assistant who had to call an ambulance to help a child at his school has said untrained staff doing medical support is a “recipe for disaster”.
James Wilton, 35, was forced to manage a child who needed an intravenous feed in a special educational needs setting within a mainstream school in Leeds. He said his training essentially consisted of a PowerPoint presentation, practising with a tube and then “boom, you’re on your way”.
James said it “all went fine” for a couple of months and then one day the feed went through at a “higher rate” to the child, who was around seven to eight years old. “About half an hour later, he looked very uncomfortable. Then I realised what had happened and we panicked and rightly so rang an ambulance,” he said.
James, who said he hadn’t administered the IV on that occasion, said the boy was fine but added: “I felt absolutely guilty that had happened. I had a lot of care for the child.”
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The teaching assistant (TA), who is a rep for the GMB union, said an investigation was then launched into the incident, which found no further action needed to be taken.
But he said: “I felt during that investigation that the school was trying to throw me under the bus and they were trying to pin all the blame on me so there was a scapegoat.”
James said his issue is that he did not want to be a nurse and trained to be a teaching assistant but has felt forced into doing medical support. “At the time when I was asked to do it, it did feel a bit like coercion,” he said. “Like ‘come on, you’ve got to do it for kids.’”
James added that he wants staff to be able to have the “choice” to progress into doing medical interventions if they want.
“You choose to be a teaching assistant because you want to assist in the teaching and because you’ve got a passion for education,” he said. “You don’t choose this job to be a nurse and that’s the issue with me. To outsource this to TAs that have not chosen to do this role and responsibility is a recipe for disaster in itself.”
Third of school staff giving medical support without proper training
A third of school support staff are giving medical support – such as helping with tube feeding or colostomy bags – without adequate training, a horrifying poll has found.
The major survey of almost 10,000 workers found untrained staff are being forced to take on extra medical responsibilities in schools that are outside their job roles.
Procedures performed by those without adequate training include catheterisation, rectal medication, tracheostomy care, refilling oxygen tanks, stoma care and support with seizures.
Just one in ten respondents said medical support was in their job description. For those who had received training, a third said it had not been delivered by a healthcare professional.
Fewer than half of primary schools (44%) and 68% of secondary schools have provision of school nurses, research by the Children’s Commissioner found earlier this month. The number of school nurses has fallen by 33% since 2009, according to the study.
The latest survey, conducted by GMB union, heard from 9,198 school members in August Respondents said medical responsibilities are falling on teaching assistants, whether they have had training or not.
“I am not a nurse but I am asked to assist with administration of insulin and deal with high and low blood sugar levels,” one staff member told the survey. “This is a child’s life I am having to deal with. This has on occasions caused me anxiety and stress.”
Another said: “We have two students starting in the same class in September who suffer with seizures, daily. I have had no training at all.”
Others said they are expected to catheterise children, administer medication or monitor insulin and epilepsy pen injections. “I didn’t sign up for this huge responsibility and definitely don’t get paid enough for it,” one staff member told the survey.
Another added: “More and more children are in mainstream education that have complex needs and it is expected that we should take on this responsibility. I must say I feel very uncomfortable. If I’d wanted to be a nurse I would have chosen that as my career.”
Another person echoed: “If I wanted a medical career I would have studied nursing and not education. I feel I am being forced into a job that I would never have applied for or take the option of redeployment and abandon the child I have worked so hard with to get him to where he is at present and risk him returning to how he used to be.”
Stacey Booth, GMB National Officer, said: “Thousands of school support staff are giving medical support to pupils when it is not their responsibility and without adequate training. It’s a terribly distressing situation for children, parents and staff.”
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