To be pissed off with transport for my SEN child?

Does his school have an occupational therapist or ed psych attached to the school (not the LEA)? We were refused a Blue Badge and they wrote a letter about his issues with transport for us. They have taken him on a bus as part of his life skills so I don't know if that helped.

I'm so sorry. DH and I are HPC and we both work part time, have flexed everything we can and have an expensive after school nanny 2 days per week for our 13 year old. I couldn't work without school transport. I really feel for you and your husband. It's shit. Of course it's disability discrimination. Our local school is 500m from our door, he could be home alone after school if it wasn't for his SEN.

Hi, I'm sure you know this (I've also been a SEN parent for 15 years - it doesn't get any easier, does it!) but the SEN Code of Practice says:

"Local authorities MUST ensure that suitable travel arrangements are made where necessary to facilitate an eligible child’s attendance at school. Section 508B of the Education Act 1996 requires local authorities to make such school travel arrangements as they consider necessary for children within their area. Such arrangements MUST be provided free of charge."

Is this what they're arguing is only guidance, not law?

I drive my son to school (9 miles) because he wouldn't cope on school transport. Can school offer evidence that he wouldn't be able to get to school by himself? I don't understand the logic of saying he would be able to if he had an adult with him. Sorry if you've already gone over this x

You can create a profile on childcare co.uk and look for a person to do this as a paid job. Would suit a retired person possibly that want to earn some extra cash

It helps to have independent evidence, and you could try the route of suggesting to the LA that they try taking your son on the bus if they think it's that easy. In this sort of case, it is likely that a court would give a lot of weight to your evidence. It's illogical to contend that parents in your position would actually discourage their child to learn to use public transport. I strongly suspect that a judge would accept that, if you could possibly get your son go to on public transport on his own, you would be doing that already, both for your own sake and his.

You could try suggesting to the council that they do their own risk assessment, i.e. they get their own educational psychologist or travel trainer or road safety officer to try to take your son on the bus on the journey in question. If they can't get him on the bus, case proved.

Boyes Turner, the solicitor you referred to, do not offer legal aid and therefore tend not to bring judicial review challenges to potentially unlawful criteria like this. You need to go to one of the charities referred to, or solicitors with legal aid contracts like Irwin Mitchell, Simpson Millar, Watkins, Rook Irwin Sweeney etc.

Alright….I’m just trying to help. I didn’t say you were stupid. No need for the arsey reply. Good luck to you.

No, if a pre-action letter does not succeed the next step is to take the case to court. You can get legal aid in the child's name to pursue it.

The business about parents being expected to accompany teenagers to school happened after a change in the guidance issued in January. Previously the guidance said LAs could only expect this if it would be normal to expect children of that age to be accompanied, which was a sensible compromise. There was no reason for changing the guidance other than trying to save money, because the statutory provisions on which the guidance is based didn't change. There are good reasons for believing the guidance to be unlawful, including the fact that it goes against some long-established case law, and some organisations like Cerebra, Ipsea and SOS SEN are looking for people prepared for their cases to be put forward as test cases. So, OP, if you're up for that, I suggest you contact one of those organisations.

If you get no joy from any appeals, consider looking into flexible working options, particularly the hospital job. They should have a flexible working policy…..all of this ‘set shift times with no deviation’ is nonsense. Some people working in hospitals do only nights, some do only days, some do term time only, some do school hours only. They just don’t like doing it because it can be a hassle but they should be offering a very good reason why there are NO flexible working options to suit your needs whilst still being able to work.

Every parent? Do you seriously believe that every parent of every 14 year old is dropping their child at school every day or arranging breakfast clubs and childminders?

The council doesn't have to pay for taxis. However, by law it must provide transport to children eligible for it - which includes children with disabilities who can't walk to school and who are attending their nearest suitable school. Transport will take various forms including shared taxis and minibuses.

Every other parent of A 14 YEAR OLD does not need to do that.

Can he get on a bus? Even with an adult? Or would his sensory issues make that difficult? For my DS, this was the case, he also used to frequently run off so walking was also not safe.
Its loosely written into his ehcp too so I also have that to fight with.

The council should pay because the law says they must.

Parents of 14 year olds are not normally having to fit their working hours around taking their children to and from school, because their children are able to take themselves. Therefore a council that expects the parents of disabled 14 year olds to lose their jobs or give up the prospect of working just to carry on transporting their child to school or college for, presumably, the rest of their time in education is clearly discriminating on the basis of disability. And what should happen if the parent can't take them? Does the disabled child just have to put up with it and do without the education that all their peers are entitled to?

The law hasn't changed, no matter how much local authorities want to save money.

Your LA is lying. The guidance was only updated last January, there are no plans to change it again.

Id suggest contacting a send solicitor now and seeing what they say. I wouldn't like to advise any further on whether to wait for the next appeal or not.

No, you don't need to be 6 miles away. Children unable to walk by reason of disability and/or SEN also qualify.

only temporary so your husband can accept the job and you can continue to challenge the LA to pay for transport in the longer term

Perhaps a childminder who lives close to the school and you can drop him off and collect him from there.

I tried the ‘but I need to get to work’ approach initially and had the same response as you. The best thing to do is not mention your working situation at all, as you are right, they don’t care about that and have no duty to you in that respect.

Just focus on the fact your child can not safely get themselves to school and can not travel independently, once you can evidence that and they accept that, they will have to provide regardless of whether you are available to do it yourself or not.

As I said earlier, for September they offered me £1000 per term personal budget, this would be no good to me as I work so cannot accompany him (otherwise I’d just drive him) but I didn’t mention that. I just thanked them for acknowledging their responsibility but made it clear that doesn’t work for us and we will require a bus or taxi. They accepted the next day.