Every Child Matters - Children with Diabetes

Discrimination?J was not allowed to go on the Year 9 Geography field trip that formed part ofthe course curriculum because he had diabetes and the risk assessment said itwas too risky.Observations1. The field trip was “an important part of your eventual level inGeography at Key stage 3….. the work done on the day will be used .. tocomplete a fieldwork write-up when you return to school. Some aspectswill also form part of the summer exam in geography”2. The risk assessment was flawed in many ways; it was not personspecific to J, mentioned injections when he was on a pump, did nothave any involvement or information from J, his parents, his GP, hisconsultant (who had written a letter saying that J had good control andthere was no reason why he should not take part in any school trip) orDSN, mentioned risks that would apply to everyone else and were notdisease specific.3. J had to sit in the school library all day the rest of the year were on thetrip, looking up books, with another child with diabetes. The other childwalked out of school and went home, J sat there all day bored. He couldnot complete the workbook as it involved being in the Peak Districtdoing practical exercises. This action he saw as punishment.4. In Year 10, the start of GCSE geography, J was put in the bottomgeography group – he missed the trip and the work taught that day,which was not made up by staff, so, as warned on the trip paper he didnot have the completed field trip to form part of his key stage 3 or thepeak district teaching for the summer exam. He would therefore havebeen entered at foundation level for GCSE, not higher level, directly asa result of school barring him from the trip as he was diabetic, and notproviding the teaching he did not receive making up the work.5. On being advised he could not take part in the Year 10/11geographyfield trip (a residential one this time – he has never been on a schoolresidential trip in his life), J wanted to take this further. We involvedour local MP and councillor (himself diabetic), I offered to accompanyJ on the trip (I am now a children’s nurse); firstly the school said thetrip was oversubscribed and I would not be able to come, then they saidit was under-subscribed and the trip was cancelled.The Disability Rights Commission were involved in the first trip, commentedthings may change when the head retired.45