Health Care Needs

2. Complex medical care supports

The below guidance lists the assistance available to schools to support students needing complex medical care.

Program for Students with Disabilities

This program provides additional resources to schools with students whose health conditions meet the World Health Organisation definitions of disabilities.

Refer to Program for Students with Disabilities on the department's website.

Disability Inclusion

Schools may use Disability Inclusion Tier 2 school-level funding for professional learning activities for school-based staff to meet the specific health needs of students with disability not covered under basic first aid training, including Epilepsy.

Refer to the Disability Inclusion Funding and Support policy for more information.

Student Support Services – including Visiting Teacher Service

Student Support Services are multidisciplinary area-based teams of allied health professionals. They are available to assist students in government schools and include speech pathologists, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, youth workers, curriculum consultants, visiting teachers.

For further information, contact department regions.

The Visiting Teaching Service provides educational support to students with a disability or other health impairment in regular school settings. The streams of expertise are:

• physical disabilities or health impairments
• deaf or hard of hearing
• vision impairment.

Referrals of students to the SSS require parent/guardian consent and can be made by:

• principals and teachers
• parents/guardians
• hospitals
• medical agencies
• child and allied health professionals
• community agencies.

For more information, refer to the Student Support Services policy and the Visiting Teacher Service policy.

Schoolcare program

The Schoolcare program is provided by the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) and funded by the department to:

• enable students with complex medical needs to safely attend school
• provide specialist training to equip school staff to deliver student-specific medical care in consultation with the student’s parents/carers and medical practitioner.

The following steps describe the process for completing the Schoolcare program referral form and undertaking training:

1. The principal accesses the Schoolcare program guidelines (DOCX) and referral form (DOCX) from the department's Schoolcare program page.
2. The principal, parent/carer and medical practitioner complete the referral form, including:
   • Part A – Parent consent and student details
   • Part B – School details
   • Part C – Medical information
3. The principal scans and returns the completed referral form to the Schoolcare program via email to schoolcare.program@education.vic.gov.au
4. The Schoolcare program coordinator, in consultation with the RCH, determines eligibility and then notifies the nominated school contact.
5. The school notifies the parents/carers of the referral outcome.
6. The Schoolcare program coordinator arranges a suitable training time with the school contact.
7. The RCH assesses the level of support required to meet the student's medical needs and develops a student-specific care manual for the school.
8. The nurse/s attends the school to deliver student specific training to the nominated school staff carers and assesses the staff carers' competency.
9. Following the initial training:
   • all carers (new and established) are required to undertake Schoolcare program training every 6 months
   • the Schoolcare program nurse reviews the care manual and school staff competency.

Medical Intervention Support

If a student requires regular complex medical support at school, the school may be able to apply for Medical Intervention Support (MIS) funding. MIS funding supports schools to engage appropriately trained educational support staff to help students with medical needs at school.

Refer to Medical intervention support for information about the application process, eligibility requirements and training responsibilities.