Children attending primary school who have type 1 diabetes are at risk because of a lack of policy and care about their condition, campaigners have warned.

Diabetes UK report that school medication policy does not cover some 6,500 children in England which means they may not receive insulin injections. This failure in policy means that parents are visiting schools during the day to ensure their children are administered injections.

Complications such as diabetic comas or even death can arise from injections not being administered and poor control of the condition can lead to heart disease, kidney failure and amputation in the long term.

The charity has called for school inspectors to monitor checks on diabetic children while at school. Injection regimes are a problem for the young as they often lack confidence and skills to test and inject themselves.

Current research suggests only 16% of primary schools have policies in place that allow them to administer insulin resulting in regimes fitting around school hours. This has led to a lack of care in school with some children having to step outside the boundaries of school or hiding in toilets to administer injections.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families have said that many schools assist with this care on a voluntary basis but there is no legal requirement to do so.

GoToSee recently published an article about diabetic children receiving proper nutrition for their condition while at school. In that article we touched upon the need for good communication between parents and teachers to ensure children with diabetes are suitably cared for.

Read our article about nutritional advice for diabetic children here

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