Parents fear for children's safety at Drummond school in Inverness lacking medical staff

Parents say the absence of medical staff at a school for pupils with special needs has left them fearing for the safety of their children.

They are also concerned that Drummond School in Inverness is oversubscribed, while teacher numbers have fallen, and are calling on Highland Council to intervene and invest urgently.

The parents say they have nothing but praise for the teachers, but claim growing demands on fewer staff have left them tired and pupils suffering as a result.

Lindsay Fulton, treasurer of the Drummond School Parent Council, told STV News: “We’re really fearful of something dangerous happening – not because of the staff, just because there’s not enough staff that are trained to do certain duties.

“And if an incident were to happen, there are not enough adults on the ground at the time.

“What’s really concerning for us, as parents, is we have no school nurse. A school nurse is not a luxury. It’s a necessity and it’s a safeguarding issue.”

Unison said its members have told them staff are burnt out and that support from senior council management is extremely poor. It also said support staff are expected to carry out increasingly complex medical procedures with minimal training.

Some are blaming council budgets, while others blame recruitment difficulties. Either way, pressure is mounting on Highland Council to act.

Local Highland councillor Isabelle Mackenzie said: “The council need to come up with a clear, transparent plan of action.

“They need to convince the school community that they are listening to the parents and everybody involved and I urge them to be taking this matter up seriously and soon.”

In a statement, Highland Council promised “a project” involving both family support and a registered nurse to work in the school.

It has also promised to engage with the parent council in future and that discussions are ongoing with the head teacher to finalise staffing for the next school session.

Drummond School was built for 90 pupils, but there are currently 106. The staff number has slipped from 118 to 102 in the past year and some classes have been cancelled.

Parents have told STV News that there have been multiple ambulance callouts because staff are not sufficiently trained in medical matters.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide for and review the support they provide pupils with additional support needs (ASN).

“Ministers are clear that all children and young people should receive the support they need to thrive in their education.

“The Scottish Government is investing an additional £29m this year to support the ASN workforce, in addition to the record spend of over £1bn by local authorities on ASN in 2023-24.

“A cross-party roundtable with local government will be held in early autumn to discuss what more can be done on ASN. Following that, a review of ASN will be scoped.”

STV News Q&A with Highland Council in full

Q. Why is there no school nurse? Is that not an essential requirement at a school with such specialist needs?

A. recent adaptations to the nursing service are part of a national change. The school nurse role changed in 2017, as part of the ‘transforming roles programme for nursing’. Introduced to Highland 2019, it paused as a result of the pandemic and there is further implementation underway.

We have carefully considered Drummond School within the national, local and professional context and in line with the Highland health support model for other special schools.

The national model for school nursing has moved away from a one nurse/one school approach to a “team approach” where children can, according to their individual needs, be supported by varying members of staff from the skill mix in the school nursing team.

This ensures the right professional supports the child and recognises that no one nurse can hold the knowledge to be accountable for the complex medical need of all children in one particular school.

We have recognised there is a gap in Drummond School as a result of the complexity of the medical need and in terms of ensuring that all the relevant “health and medical” plans, from various professionals reach the GIRFEC child’s plans as well as ensuring families are supported in the school and have confidence that the school staff have the skills to meet the needs as part of the child’s plan.

To this end we are looking to take forward a project in Drummond School where there will be both family support and a registered nurse to work in the school with parents to make sure the health needs are supported.

Q. The parent council says Highland Council has never taken up an invitation to meet with them to discuss these concerns. Why not?

A. Responses have been provided and most recent communication highlighted that area quality improvement manager for the school with the headteacher will engage with the parent council going forward. If parents have individual concerns and questions they should contact the school directly.

Q. Why the staff cuts, especially when the school roll has increased?

A. Staffing allocations for Drummond School are based on the national Scottish negotiating committee for teachers (SNCT) staffing regulations for special schools. This is a different model to how we support and resource ASL provision in mainstream schools.

The revised ASL allocation staffing standard for mainstream school support, which was approved by council members in February 2023, is solely in relation to mainstream ASL support and resource allocation.

The overall resource for additional support in our schools has not been reduced, but we are working towards the implementation of a more equitable allocation of resource across all schools in Highland.

The committee report also highlights the need to review specialist education provisions and equality of provision/resource amongst all special schools and specialist provisions in Highland and we continue to progress this.

As already stated, Highland Special School staffing is not part of the ASL allocation approach.

The staffing is agreed locally between headteacher and officers. We are currently in discussion with the headteacher around staffing needs of the school and finalising the staffing at Drummond for the next school session.

Q. What will you do to address the concerns listed above?

A. We are aware that higher than normal levels of staff absence are impacting on staffing in the school this session.

Staff absence is managed in the same way as all other schools. In the event of any staff shortages, the school can arrange cover or backfill using supply or existing staffing as available.

We do appreciate however, the difficulty that our schools can sometimes face in being able to get backfill for staff absence, but this is an issue for all schools, not just at Drummond.

Officers link in with schools to support with this, and we update our supply lists regularly to ensure they are as up to date as possible, so that headteachers are able to access cover as required.