My Lords, I, too, offer my thanks and congratulations to the Minister and the Government for the considerable progress made since Committee and for the frankly stunning indicative guidance. It is not yet out for consultation, but it is extremely helpful. Of course, the problem with providing your Lordships’ House with such prospective guidance is that we all have things that we think could better it. I will not repeat the points that noble Lords have already made, but will add briefly the two or three that I am concerned about.
I reiterate that the guidance must make it explicit that children with diagnosed health conditions are given an individual healthcare plan, even if there are no obvious actions, not least because medical and health conditions change and for a child at school suddenly to have to go through that process, when it was known about at the start, seems rather foolish. It will speed up the planning process and the school’s ability to monitor the child’s health if they are already on the radar of the school.
I particularly like the section in paragraph 39 on unacceptable practice. This is extremely helpful, but there is one glaring omission. Nowhere does it say that schools must take account of a doctor’s diagnosis rather than make their own. In Committee I mentioned a young man who was struggling with severe ME and chronic fatigue syndrome; but because the head did not believe that ME existed, he was given no rest times and was actually excluded because he was unable to take part in sport, which was deemed to be bad behaviour. Despite the fact that his hospital consultant had given the school formal advice, the head chose to ignore it. That is unacceptable bad practice and, in my view, it needs to be included.
That relates also to the ambiguity in the guidance about whether pupils with medical conditions should have individual healthcare plans. We must not have a get-out clause for schools. I hope that the Minister will be able to give reassurance on that point and others that my colleagues have made.
Finally, I give my particular thanks to the Minister and his team for meeting me to discuss my idea about access for teachers with frequently asked questions on a range of health conditions. This is now progressing: discussions are about to start with officials in the Department of Health. I know that the Health Conditions School Alliance already has a date to discuss that and other things with the department in the very near future. When a school nurse is not around, this tool for teachers is going to be absolutely vital. It is not going to be technical and complex but will help to alleviate the fears that a teacher will have if a child suddenly moves into their class with a condition of which they have no experience at all, and if they want to understand both the learning and social implications of such a condition.