Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the final statutory guidance on supporting children and young people with medical conditions at school will name hydrocephalus as a specific condition, including guidance on recognising shunt and ETV failure.

In March, the department launched a consultation on ‘Supporting children and young people with medical conditions and allergy’, with the aim of updating and revising statutory guidance last issued in 2015. The government’s response to the proposal is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a47bbfee50f952c9b89e543/Proposal_on_support_for_pupils_with_medical_conditions_at_school_government_response.pdf.

While the consultation demonstrated strong system-wide support for our planned direction, further work is needed to clarify the respective roles and responsibilities of education settings and healthcare professionals. The department is taking this forward with the Department of Health and Social Care and will publish updated statutory guidance for education settings on supporting children and young people with medical conditions in due course.

Our draft guidance included information on several of the most common conditions in education settings.