Access to education and age appropriate activities
Education law in Scotland states that every child has a right to school education, and places a duty on education authorities to make special arrangements for children and young people where they are unable to attend school. Support to remain engaged in education is vitally important in reducing the long-term impact of mental illness on young people.
All specialist in-patient units have education provision on site. During our visits we looked at arrangements where a young person was admitted to a non-specialist ward. Many of these admissions are for such short periods of time that the need to make arrangements for education does not arise and many of the young people admitted are over school leaving age and have left school. Where a young person was still at school, access to education was an area of difficulty, even where the non-specialist ward was a designated ward for the admission of young people. It was clear from the information gathered that limited access to education was available for some young people, with their own school providing work when the school had been contacted. Staff working in non-specialist wards, however, often did not know how arrangements should be made to ensure the provision of appropriate education.
Where a young person was admitted to a non-specialist ward all wards reported difficulty providing age appropriate activities, even where the NHS Board had identified a designated ward to be used for young person's admissions. One ward had recently secured funding to develop activities for young people, and one ward had used the occupational therapy service to provide art work for a young person during admission. Several wards identified issues with adults watching television programmes or DVDs on the ward which were not appropriate for a young person. This meant that the young person's access to TV and recreation was limited.
Recommendation
Local arrangements should be in place to ensure that education authorities are contacted to make appropriate arrangements when a young person is admitted to a non-specialist ward and where this is likely to impact on their education.
