Parent Approval: Obtaining parent/carer consent and approval for Individual Health Care Plans (IHCPs) or prescribed medication online

The Department for Education states that "no child under 16 should be given prescription or non-prescription medicines without their parent’s written consent". Medical Tracker allows parents/carers to provide approval or consent online.

How can the Medical Tracker Parent Approval feature help my school?

Obtaining approval/consent for Individual Health Care Plans or prescribed medication can be time-consuming for parents, carers and schools. You will now be able to request consent and obtain approval for Individual Health Care Plans, or prescribed medications directly from Medical Tracker. 

How does Parent Approval work?

How do I request approval from a parent/carer?

There are two steps to request approval from a parent/carer.

Step 1: You will need to select the green 'Request Parent/Carer Approval' button within the pupil's medical condition - this will add the record to our ParentApprove portal.

Once selected it will then:

• Appear under the 'Parent to review' filter
• Be visible to the parent/carer when they login to the Parent Approval hub (parentapprove.medicaltracker.co.uk)
• The status of the condition as well as the staff member requesting approval will be displayed: 'demonstration@medicaltracker.co.uk requested parent approval on 03/04/2024 01:58 pm'

Step 2: The parent/carer now needs to be notified that they have been sent a request to review/approve the medical condition. Use the 'Send notification' button to do this - there are two default templates however you can customise or add more templates within 'Settings' -> 'Manage templates' -> 'Medical conditions' - take a look at this guide for more information on updating templates. 

How do parents/carers sign in?

Parents/carers do not need specific login details to access parentapprove.medicaltracker.co.uk when approving medical conditions. Medical Tracker imports the parent/carer email address from your management information system. They will use this email address to log in and access the conditions relating to their children. 

They simply enter their email address and select 'Email my passcode':

They will then receive a four-digit code, and they will enter the code into parentapprove.medicaltracker.co.uk from their email to access the document:

Once logged in they will have the chance to choose from the following Medical Tracker review options found on the right-hand side of the condition:

	Approve: The parent/carer approves the information included in the medical condition, individual health care plan or prescribed medication - no further action is required by the school.
	Amend: The parent/carer requires an update to the medical condition. You will find details of the changes within the 'External notes' tab at the bottom of the medical condition on Medical Tracker and the medical condition will be moved to 'School to review'. You will then need to request the parent/carer to approve the condition once the updates have been implemented.
	No longer required: The medical condition, individual health care plan or prescribed medication is no longer required and it can be archived. Any additional comments from the parent/carer will be added to the 'External notes' tab at the bottom of the medical condition on Medical Tracker.

How will I know the status of each medical condition?

Status:

The parent/Carer does not have access to the document, and it has not gone through the 'Parent Approve' process.

The school has requested parent/carer approval, and the medical condition is visible to the parent/carer within the parentapprove.medicaltracker.co.uk You can cancel the approval request by selecting 'Cancel Approval Request'. Please note, that you must always email the parent/carer to let them know they need to review the condition.

The parent/carer has reviewed the medical condition and has requested changes/amendments. Additional comments from the parent/carer can be found in 'External notes' at the bottom of the page. Important: Once changes have been actioned the school needs to select 'Amendments complete' and email the parent/carer to ask them to approve, and the condition will go back into the 'Parent to review' status.

Parent/Carer has approved the medical condition.  Important: You can only edit 'Review date' or 'Notes' otherwise the condition will lose the approved status.

What does each filter mean on the left-hand side in 'Medical conditions'?

	This is all medical conditions excluding 'Archived' conditions.
	The review date is within four weeks from today.
	The review date is in the past.
	This includes all archived medical conditions. If a student leaves the school their medical conditions are automatically archived however medical conditions can be manually archived by staff members with the correct user permissions.
	Parent/carer has approved the condition using the 'Parental Approval' feature.
	Parent/carer has requested changes/amendments that need to be actioned by the school.
	The parent/carer is yet to review or approve the medical condition.

How long will a parent/carer have access to a medical condition?

By default, a parent/carer will have access to the medical condition for 14 days unless the school selects 'Cancel parent/carer approval'.

How do I turn on this feature?

Within 'Settings' -> 'Account settings' -> 'Medical conditions' you need to switch on 'Enable Online Parent Approval' and press 'Save':