Sadly, it’s become all too clear to me from my own personal, painful experience and from all the stories I’m hearing from other parents that too many schools don’t have the policies to keep children with medical conditions safe. This morning, some awful new statistics show that this is a big problem everywhere in England. The Health Conditions in School Alliance asked a random selection of schools in England whether they had a medical conditions policy, and only 1 in 10 could show that they did. That’s pretty shocking considering three years ago this month it became law that all schools must have a medical conditions policy. With the right policies in place to help staff know what to do, I don’t think Jenny would have suffered in the way she did. That’s why it is so disappointing to hear that so few schools could show they had the right policies. The Department for Education clearly needs to do more to help schools get these policies in place. Maybe it isn’t that surprising though. For instance, it’s hard to see how Ofsted inspectors know what to check for when the inspection handbook doesn’t mention the law that schools must have a medical conditions policy in place. Hopefully these new figures will make people realise how urgent it is we get some changes. Let’s keep pressuring Ofsted to make sure inspectors start checking regularly, and pushing the Department of Education to do more to let schools know about their responsibilities. A good first step will be sharing this on social media, and with anyone else who may be interested. Let’s make sure more people know about this big problem in our schools. https://www.change.org/p/edward-timpson-mp-raise-awareness-that-every-school-has-to-by-law-have-a-medical-needs-policy-implemented