Christopher Sears

Lord Nash

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System
Sanctuary Buildings Great Smith Street Westminster London SW1P 3BT
tel: 0370 000 2288 www.education.gov.uk/help/contactus

Dr. Karen Henderson
HM Coroner for Surrey
HM Coroner's Court
Station Approach
Woking

Surrey

GU22 7AP

ZO K oust 2016

Qe (daw

Thank you for your report into the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of
Christopher Sears in November 2014 whilst travelling on a school bus. | am grateful
to you for drawing this terrible incident to my attention and | have carefully
considered the matters of concerns raised in your report, and what action | might
take to prevent future deaths.

Your concern that LA contractual arrangements do not require tendering bus
companies to ensure that their drivers are qualified in basic life support skills is a
matter for the Department for Transport (DfT), and we understand that Andrew
Jones is replying separately to you on this issue.

The Department for Education (DfE) provides advice to LAs on the provision of
school transport, which falls within my remit of responsibilities, (this can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-
quidance). This advises that all local authorities should ensure that all drivers and
escorts taking pupils to and from school and related services have undertaken
appropriate training, and that this is kept up to date. This training includes “training in
the implementation of health care protocols to cover emergency procedures”.

It is our intention that LAs should ensure that school bus drivers and escorts have
training in basic life support skills and in the implementation of emergency protocols
(your third ‘Matter of Concern’). We intend to consult on a revised version of the
guidance on school transport in the autumn. Subject to any responses received in
response to this consultation, we will consider whether we should further clarify both
the description of the training that drivers should undertake and our expectation that
training for bus drivers and escorts should include basic life support training
alongside the implementation of healthcare protocols, including emergency
protocols.

On your concern that the school did not, as a result of no medical diagnosis, have a
medical plan in place, we have already introduced a new duty on governing bodies
to support pupils with medical conditions. This was introduced by Section 100 of the
Children and Families Act 2014 which came into force on 1 September 2014. Our
aim is to give parents confidence that the right support and systems will be put in
place to ensure that pupils receive the support they need. This is a clear signal to
schools that supporting pupils with medical conditions is an important issue and will
help them to meet their legal responsibilities.

The statutory guidance came into force alongside the new duty on 1 September
2014 and is available at httos://www.qov.uk/government/publications/supporting-
pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3. The guidance sets out our minimum
expectations of schools, and covers the preparation and implementation of school
policies for supporting pupils with medical conditions and the use of individual care
plans. Schools must have a ‘supporting pupils with medical conditions’ policy. The
governing board should ensure that policies, plans, procedures and systems are
properly and effectively implemented.

We also advise that schools do not have to wait for a formal diagnosis before
providing support to pupils. In cases where a pupil’s medical condition is unclear, or
where there is a difference of opinion, judgements will be needed about what support
to provide based on the available evidence. This would normally involve some form
of medical evidence and consultation with parents. The guidance outlines an
expectation that school staff, healthcare professionals and parents should work
together to agree the type and level of support a child needs when they are in school
to effectively manage their medical condition. This would usually be recorded ina
pupil’s individual healthcare plan. It also raises the possibility that LAs may need to
be informed, given their responsibility for providing home to school transport.

We believe this provides the right level of guidance to schools to ensure that
effective healthcare plans are put in place, whilst allowing the flexibility they need
when handling an individual pupil’s needs. We will, however, ensure that there is a
reference to this advice within our guidance on home to school transport so that LAs
are aware of the responsibilities of schools in drawing up such plans.

Finally, on your concern that basic life support training is not taught as a matter of
course to young adults, whilst schools are not under a statutory duty to provide
emergency life skills teaching, many do teach it as part of personal, social, health
and economic (PSHE) education.

We do not prescribe which topics schools should teach in PSHE and instead they
use their professional judgement to teach bespoke topics to meet the local needs of
their pupils. Having said that, topics for teaching can be wide-ranging and can
include first aid and staying healthy. Many schools work with expert organisations,
such as the Red Cross and St John Ambulance who provide learning materials, tool-
kits and targeted resources and carry-out school visits and life-saving skills
demonstrations and events. The Government has promoted the use of these tool-
kits and learning resources to schools. Additionally the Government has
demonstrated its commitment in this area by:

e Promoting a programme of study that teaches young people how to recognise
and follow health and safety procedures and how to use emergency and basic
first aid.

e Providing £254,911 in funding for St John Ambulance to support first-aid
training for 31,500 pupils and 600 school first aid champions.

e Support our policy of encouraging schools to purchase defibrillators as part of
their first-aid equipment by setting up a scheme so they can buy defibrillators
at a reduced price.

We believe this range of measures is sufficient to improve awareness of and to
support the training of pupils in first aid and emergency medical situations. They are
appropriate and proportionate and in line with letting schools determine their own
local needs and priorities.

Overall, | believe that the proposed changes to our guidance on home to school
transport, together with the revised advice already issued to schools about
supporting pupils with medical conditions, and our continued commitment to
promoting training in basic like support skills will help to increase further the safety of
pupils travelling to and from school. [ therefore trust you will be reassured that the
Government is playing its full part in learning the lessons from Christopher's tragic
death and that his family, friends and others affected can take some consolation
from our efforts to ensure that such rare but terrible incidents are less likely to occur
in future.

,

nel

JOHN NASH

From the Parliamentary
dl Under Secretary of State
Andrew Jones MP

Department Great Minster House
for Transport 33 Horsefenry Road
SW1P 4DR

Tel: 031
Dr Karen Henderson “|

c/o Sarah Church, PA to HM Coroner for Surrey
HM Coroner's Court

Station Approach

Woking, Surrey

GU22 7AP

Web site: www.gov.uk/aft
Our Ref: MC/166456

30 AUG 2016

Deas Dy Werdesson,

Thank you for your Regulation 28 report made under the Coroners
(Investigations) Regulations 2013 into the death of Christopher Sears on a
school bus in November 2014. This letter details the Department's response
as required by regulation 29 of the above Regulations. The Department has
carefully considered the report, and the potential actions that it considers it
could take to ensure that the tragic circumstances that your report describes
are not repeated.

This letter sets out our responses to your first three matters of concern, which
are each matters in which both the Department for Education (DfE) and the
Department for Transport (DfT) have involvement. | understand that the
Department for Education will be responding to you separately, including on
the final two issues that are education-specific.

DfE provides guidance to Local Authorities on the provision of home to school
transport, which can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-

transport-guidance.
At paragraph 44, the guidance notes:

“44. All local authorities should ensure that all drivers and escorts taking
pupils to and from school and related services have undertaken
appropriate training, and that this is kept up to date. It is also
considered good practice for those responsible for planning and
managing school transport to have undertaken appropriate equality
training. This training could consist of (but is not restricted to):

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* an awareness of different types of disability including hidden
disabilities;
* an awareness of what constitutes discrimination;

° training in the necessary skills to recognise, support and
manage pupils with different types of disabilities, including hidden
disabilities and certain behaviour that may be associated with
such disabilities;

° training in the skills necessary to communicate appropriately
with pupils with all types of different disabilities, including the
hidden disabilities; and

° training in the implementation of health care protocols to cover
emergency procedures.”

The Department, as a responsible public authority, fully supports DfE’s
intention, as expressed above, that Local Authorities should ensure that
schoo! bus drivers have training in basic life support skills. | understand that
DfE intends to consult on a revised version of the school transport guidance

in autumn,

Additionally, professional bus drivers are required to hold a Driver's
Certificate of Professional Competence (Driver CPC). After an initial
qualification, it requires that the holder undertakes 35 hours of periodic
training every 5 years to keep the qualification valid. Training providers offer a
range of approved courses within a set syllabus, which includes:

“Section 3.5: the Ability to assess emergency situations. This includes:

Behaviour in an emergency situation: assessment of the situation,
avoiding complications of an accident, summoning assistance,
assisting casualties and giving first aid, reaction in the event of
fire, evacuation of occupants of a lorry/bus passengers, ensuring
the safety of all passengers, reaction in the event of aggression;
basic principles for the drafting of an accident report.” [See
https:/Awww.gov.uk/government/publications/driver-cpc-syllabus]

The Driver CPC is purposely designed to be flexible in its application — no
specific part of the periodic training syllabus is mandatory, and the
Department believes that this is important to ensure that training can be
focussed on every individual’s specific training needs. In 2014/15 275,900
drivers chose to undertake training courses that taught them either basic or
more advanced first aid techniques; while that total includes both bus and
HGV drivers, it nevertheless suggests strong take-up.

Considering both those positions, it is not proposed to make basic life support
training a mandatory requirement for bus drivers. | have however asked the
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), who are responsible for the
Driver CPC, to undertake some promotional activity to ensure that awareness
of the relevance of basic life support training as part of an individual bus
driver's development needs is as high as it should be. This will be undertaken
through the DVSA’s regular communication and stakeholder engagement
routes, but particularly through targeted communications and social media
activity around the 10 September 2016. This date is both World First Aid Day,
and the 10" anniversary of the implementation of the Driver GPC in UK law,
providing an ideal opportunity to reinforce how important basic life support
training can be for a driver carrying, in particular, children or vulnerable
individuals.

engagement with bus industry and local authority stakeholders, take

|
i
Further to this, Department for Transport officials will, through their ongoing
i
opportunities to raise the profile of this issue.

| would also add that although there is no specific requirement in health and
safety at work legislation for provision of first aid to non-employees (e.g.
pupils), in its on-line guidance the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
nevertheless strongly encourages employers to consider non-employees
when carrying out their first-aid needs assessment and to make provision for
them.

As a responsible public authority the Department fully appreciates that the
safety of children on the way to and fram school on provided transport is of
- fundamental importance. In this respect the Department is of the view that
DfE’s guidance to Local Authorities on home to school transport is an i
appropriate mechanism for achieving the appropriate and necessary level of
safety. This is bolstered by the forthcoming consultation which provides an
important opportunity to consider and review whether the guidance’s :
expectations can be strengthened. | hope that DfT/DVSA supporting |
promotion of the importance of basic life support training as part of
considering a school bus driver’s Driver CPC training needs will further
strengthen take up of relevant courses.

‘ows cs neatly } |

ANDREW JONES MP