Staff at Ysgol Heol Goffa had to operate a rare device implanted in a pupil’s chest when he had a seizure a few weeks ago, with no nurse on site, his mother says.
Her account was read out at Carmarthenshire County Council on Wednesday, where councillors were asked to demand a funded plan, with deadlines, for nurses at the county’s special school and specialist units.
The motion, tabled by Labour councillors, was backed unanimously.
The mother, who was not named, said staff at the Llanelli school had basic training on the device but none was properly qualified to use it.
She described rushing to the school “not knowing what I would find”, in words read to the chamber by Cllr Martyn Palfreman, who proposed the motion with Cllr Edward Skinner.
What the council has asked Hywel Dda for
The motion calls for an urgent meeting between Hywel Dda University Health Board, headteachers, governors, parents and council officers.
It says any nurse should be able to monitor pupils, spot a child getting worse, give prescribed and rescue medication and respond to emergencies. There should be cover for sickness and leave, so the school is never without clinical support.
Until that is in place, the council wants an immediate clinical risk assessment of every pupil with complex or life-limiting needs, and rapid access to a registered nurse through the school day.
The health board’s response and timetable are to go to a scrutiny committee in public. Whatever is agreed for Ysgol Heol Goffa is meant to become the model for the county’s specialist units, among them Canolfan Elfed, Canolfan yr Enfys and Canolfan Amanwy.
The council leader will also write to Mabon ap Gwynfor, the Cabinet Minister for Health and Care, asking for Welsh guidance to be strengthened to match England’s.
‘Lord Logan lived here’
Cllr Deryk Cundy, the Labour group leader, told the meeting three children who attended the school had died at home in the past few months.
He stressed that none of the deaths was attributed to the school, and that the council was not at fault.
With the family’s permission, he spoke about one of them: an 11-year-old from his ward whose parents had given him the legal title “Lord Logan”.
Logan could not walk and had serious medical conditions, Cllr Cundy said. His parents carried rucksacks of medical equipment whenever they took him out.
A few weeks ago, after a routine hospital check-up, he died suddenly at home in his father’s arms, the councillor said.
A blue plaque on the family’s house now reads “Lord Logan lived here”.
Cllr Cundy said it showed how quickly a child with such needs could fall ill, wherever they were. He asked who would be responsible if a child died on council premises for want of medical care: “the teacher, the assistant, the governors, the head of school”, or the NHS.
At the school, he said, five children need palliative care, seven have feeding plans, 22 have epilepsy and three have shunts.
Five years of asking for a nurse
The headteacher has been asking for a permanent nurse for more than five years, the motion says. Estyn inspectors said after a November 2025 visit that the lack of a dedicated school nurse affected the medical support available to pupils with complex health needs.
Last month a Llanelli town councillor said four pupils had died in six months. Cllr Glynog Davies, the council’s cabinet member for education, said then that no causal connection should be drawn between any deaths and nursing provision “without clear clinical evidence”.
Hywel Dda said last month that it supports the school with a specialist community children’s nursing service and by training staff. Sharon Daniel, its director of nursing, said each child “can be cared for competently and confidently within the school environment”.
The health minister told campaigners in August that a nurse was a matter for the council and the health board. New Welsh Government guidance has been promised for 2027, though the education minister has since said there is no timescale.
No date has been given for the meeting.
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