Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to strengthen guidance for schools in (a) Yeovil Constituency and (b) England on Individual Healthcare Plans for children with Epilepsy.

Governing bodies must ensure that the arrangements they put in place are sufficient to meet their statutory responsibilities, and that policies, plans, procedures and systems are properly and effectively implemented. This includes the duty under Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions and the duties under the Equality Act 2010.

The statutory guidance, ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’, recommends the use of individual healthcare plans as good practice. They can help schools support pupils with medical conditions, providing clarity about what needs to be done, when and by whom. The school, healthcare professionals and parents should agree, based on evidence, when a healthcare plan would be appropriate. The guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ce6a72e40f0b620a103bd53/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf.

The government has committed to reviewing this statutory guidance. Our aim is to ensure that schools are better equipped to support all pupils with medical conditions as part of our wider ambition to create more inclusive schools through the forthcoming Schools White Paper.