Managing Prescribed Medication

Managing prescribed medication within school

Mr. Frost, Miss Buttle and Mrs. Cooper are the only appointed staff who are responsible for administering prescription medicines on a day-to-day basis. Gleadless  Primary School will only administer medicines prescribed by a doctor. 

Mr. Frost and Mrs. Cooper are responsible for the creation and monitoring of children's care plans. Care plans are reviewed regularly and are a purely supportive piece of work to ensure your child receives the best care whilst in school and this plan is closely monitored by the team who manage medicines. If you child requires a care plan, please contact the school office and we will be glad to help. Alternatively, we may suggest a care plan to you if we feel your child is on regular prescribed medication. If your child partakes in a school trip or event, his or her medicine will always be taken with them and dispensed by one of the appointed staff who are trained to dispense these medicines. 

If parents send in over the counter medicines, such as paracetamol/Calpol etc., these cannot be administered by the school unless they are prescribed by the doctor. However, parents/carers are permitted to administer over the counter medicines during the school day at their own discretion. School can and will dispense the appropriate number of doses throughout the day. For example, if your child requires a certain medication 8 times a day, the school will dispense the appropriate number of doses to make the remaining doses at home more manageable and realistic. If your child needs antibiotics 3 times a day, for example, the school will only dispense this once per day, as it would be reasonable for parents to dispense the remaining 2 doses outside of school hours.

Should any child require short term antibiotics that have been prescribed by a doctor, these should be clearly labelled with the pupil’s name and the correct dosage to be administered. 

Parents will be asked to fill in a form to allow medicines to be kept in school and giving permission for named staff to administer the medication.

The only medicine children are allowed to keep in the classroom is an inhaler for asthma. These are labelled with the child's name.

Prescribed medication will be stored securely in the office for health and safety reasons.