Llanelli Town Council has written to Wales’ new health minister demanding action over the lack of a full-time nurse at Ysgol Heol Goffa — as a mother whose son attends the school pleads for change “before a preventable tragedy forces it”.
Campaigners fighting for a “lifesaving” dedicated full-time nurse at Ysgol Heol Goffa — a battle that began with warnings that “lives may be at risk” — have been joined by Llanelli Town Council in urging Wales’ Health and Care Minister to act.
The town council has written to Mabon ap Gwynfor, the Cabinet Minister for Health and Care in the new Plaid Cymru government, describing the position at the Llanelli special school as “unacceptable and potentially unsafe for some of the most vulnerable children in the county”.
Council leader Sean Rees proposed the motion — tabled last month — urging the minister to act to “secure this necessary service” at the school.
Labour town councillor Shaun Greaney, who represents the Lliedi ward where the school is based, proposed that the minister meet parents and the Heol Goffa Action Group to hear their concerns.
Hannah Coles, from Trimsaran, whose son attends the school, has written to the minister pleading with him to act swiftly “before a preventable tragedy forces change”.
Her son is tube fed, requires rescue medication for dystonia, and is medically complex and life limited.
“Every day I send him in, I put enormous trust in the systems meant to keep him safe,” she wrote.
She praised the school’s staff as compassionate and dedicated — “but they are not nurses”.
“Medical intervention is ongoing at the school, where teaching assistants and teachers are tube feeding, changing tracheostomies and are catheterising children,” she wrote. “This is over and above the first aid intervention that typical educators are expected to do.”
“Our children’s safety, dignity and rights must come before everything else,” she added.
Cllr Greaney has also written personally to the minister, arguing that the lack of a full-time registered nurse on site breaches the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child — and that more than 12 children’s lives could depend on the provision.
Some of the school’s pupils have life-limiting conditions and some are receiving palliative care, he wrote — and while health boards elsewhere in Wales provide on-site nurses at special schools whose pupils have severely complex conditions, Hywel Dda University Health Board does not at Ysgol Heol Goffa.
Headteacher Ceri Hopkins has been asking for nursing provision at the school for more than five years, he said.
Heol Goffa Action Group chair Becki Gilroy said: “Children’s lives are at stake and we will fight tooth and nail until they get the protection they deserve. We cannot have any penny-pinching.”
The campaign has been building since February, when campaigners first demanded an investigation by Wales’ children’s watchdog into the lack of provision.
Within days, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales stepped in — writing to Hywel Dda to seek a meeting, and pointing to a January Estyn inspection which recommended that the school needed a dedicated nurse.
The health board has previously said it provides a dedicated school nurse to meet pupils’ universal health needs, and offers training to school staff.
Campaigners argue that falls short of what children with complex, life-limiting conditions require — a permanent nurse based on site.
The nurse campaign comes as consultation continues on the long-delayed £35m rebuild of the 150-place school, due to open in 2029 — with a row still rumbling over the Welsh Government’s 75% funding pledge.
Following publication of this article, Cllr Rees issued a further statement setting out the town council’s next steps.
“Following the unanimous support shown by councillors for the appointment of a dedicated, full-time registered nurse at Ysgol Heol Goffa, our Town Council has acted promptly and collectively in ongoing efforts to secure improved support for pupils attending Heol Goffa,” he said.
“Based on the responses received so far, it is clear the County Council position is that this is a matter for Hywel Dda Health Board and we have received no further correspondence from the Health Board currently.
“The Council therefore felt the appropriate next step should be to write formally to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in the Welsh Government, setting out the Council’s concerns, enclosing the correspondence received to date, and requesting that the Welsh Government reviews the position.
“We hope that such a letter will encourage ministerial engagement with the Health Board and provide greater clarity on how and when this matter will be resolved. Above all, our priority remains on securing the appropriate level of healthcare support for the children and young people who attend Ysgol Heol Goffa.”
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