SEN Transport question (posted here for traffic)

[WeywardCrow]

Hi all,

DS is 13 and has diagnoses of ASD, SPD, anxiety and depression. He has an EHCP which names a school we are reasonably happy with.

The issue is that the Transport being provided to and from school is completely unsuitable and I wondered if anyone had any words of advice? We live in South Norfolk and DS is picked up at 7.40am. He goes via the east of Norwich to pick up child A and then via a town in the Broads to pick up child B. Yesterday was the first day of his new route. He was in the car for about 4 hours in total and by the time he got home was very distressed, felt car sick and was just exhausted. It was incredibly difficult to get him into the cab this morning. Again picked up at 7.40 and arrived 20 minutes late to school at 9.20.

The Transport team have said he just needs to be picked up even earlier which we just can’t agree to. DS is beside himself and exhausted and we know from last year when he was picked up just before 8 that he was just about able to manage that.

What on earth do we do? I know the 75 minute maximum travel time is just a guideline but does anyone know what legislation/case law this is based on? Anyone got any idea how best to address this? I suspect we just won’t be able to get him to school again until the route is made shorter again. Which means the LA funding additional transport but that really is not something I can do anything about.

(And just as a mini rant, dear god, but I have two autistic kids who attend different specialist schools and how the fuck I keep other aspects of my life going as well as making sure they get some sort of an education is a chuffing mystery to me)

Thanks for any words of advice/support.

Blueybanditbingochilli also wants to cut benefits to families with disabled children. But here they want the OP to quit work to drive their child to school.
They seem pretty clear they consider disabled children a drain on resources.

Good luck sorting out your transport

I think it's also worth thinking about how much money is spent by LAs in trying to save money. In my LA, every year they lay off all the escorts, terminate all the contracts of the hire companies, and put them all out to tender. Then they spend what must be thousands of hours, recontracting the hire companies, rehiring the escorts, and organising the routes. All to shave a few pence per contract, no doubt.

What makes it even more ludicrous, is that they have now lost the good will of the hire companies, who can barely afford to run the routes they are bidding for. They won't now give out details to parents, because technically it's the council's job. So parents are left trying to phone the transport line, asking for simple information such as pick up time, pick up location, etc. Meanwhile, the council sends an email saying 'refer to operator...'

What a waste of time and money.

It’s also this type who then get angry if SEN kids with extra challenges are in their child’s mainstream school class, yet begrudge the cost of a disabled child going to a school that meets their needs 🙄

This sounds like a nightmare situation I have a child in a special school who gets transport too ,we are having on going issues with them but fortunately not the amount of time he spends on transport we live in a large town with good transport links thankfully,

I don’t have anything useful to add but it’s fucking barbaric to put any child through that long a journey to and from school. How the hell is he meant to fully benefit from his education when he’s stressed and and upset every day? I would absolutely push to get a better alternative and I’m glad that most of the other people on this thread seem to think the same way.

My son is entitled to school transport and goes to a special school because of his disabilities/issues. He is my priority, not council budgets. I accept these are stretched but that isn’t a reason for vulnerable children to be disadvantaged even more than they are.

Blueybanditbingochilli
DLA would certainly not cover the loss in earnings if the OP drove him herself. I must admit that this expectation that parents of children with disabilities should give up work really annoys me. We have a right to work and earn a living.

As you are so concerned about council expenditure perhaps rather than further stress parents of disabled children out on social media you might apply to sit in the council. The transport budgets marginal compared to the cost of elderly social care and also the cost of fostering children. Have you actually looked at your councils accounts line by line? I have for my local accounts.

My council has also wasted huge amounts of money on projects that will never get off the ground and what can only be called vanity projects.

My council also wastes money on foreign trips to places like Mipim ( South of France) allegedly to sell land for housing or gain housing partners - but it’s one big schmooze with cocktails on yachts!
I lost count how many trips our local dignitary went on in the last 24 months!

Also ask why are these kids having to be transported all over? The answer is because councils refuse to build the appropriate facilities close by. Parents don’t want their kids transported 40 or 50 miles. My adult son has to be transported 25 miles to a small town when we live in a large city. Our city has absolutely no appropriate facilities for his needs as he is too high functioning but needs life skills. All the local colleges refused to meet his needs as he needed to be in an academic environment. So whose fault is that? I’ll tell you whose fault it is - the council who could have down one less vanity project and built the right type of college for him and many others .

Tbh i suspect the 'good reason' many councils would have to stray a bit from the guidance is that there is simply no money left to pay for it.
I feel really sorry for parents in this position but I think some don't really just how many young people require these exceptional arrangements now of daily private taxis of over an hour each way, specialist educational provision costing tens of thousands etc, and don't quite get that the money has effectively run out?

People seem to think the numbers of young people whose education is costing the council probably in excess of £30,000 - £40,000 a year, can just keep going up and up and the council simply must just keep paying, they are all entitled so that's that.... There simply isn't enough money??

Lack of funding is not a good reason even if you think it is. What other DC need is irrelevant to the OP’s case.

Do you think it's that the councils don't want to build the facilities... Or that they literally have zero money to pay for that.
Things like special schools operate on economies of scale. The therapies, specialist provision and facilities they provide are only cost effective if they have a critical mass of students to use them, thats why there isnt a tiny special school in every single village or town.

Its really, really difficult but the fact remains that in society we need enough healthy people able to work and contribute taxes to balance out the costs for those not able to contribute, and the balance isn't there now.

Then the council will have to find cuts elsewhere to cover it.

This is a statutory responsibility. They have to do it.

And yes I agree that people should be far more active in local politics is down to the local council. Even if someone is not in a position to stand themselves, then holding councillors to account (email, turning up to meetings, asking questions, lobbying) can make a considerable difference.

All councils have received cuts because of central government funding decisions. But some councils have weathered the storms rather better than others. And the pressure should be on all councils to be performing as well as the best

Why do you think that children with SEN are expendable? My LA has a SEN transport bill of £50 million, against a budget of £2.9 billion. That's 1.72%. Why are children with SEN not worth 1.72% of the budget to get them to the nearest suitable school?

Nobody, nobody, nobody, chooses to put their child on a taxi to be taken miles across their county for education. But when the local schools literally can't take the child, there is no choice.

And a lot of parents with children with SEND cannot work and contribute due to poor services. I include myself in this due to: lack of sleep, constant appointments, meetings chasing appointments and other services, none of this takes place after the working day. If the services helped parents to work, we could contribute more.

Also, in our case (Social Care rather than transport). If the measures recommended had been put in place, our local council would have spend £1000s less than they've ended up doing. They work on a crisis level, rather than a preventative level. (I live in the same area as OP).

Unfortunately the balance will never be there if we don’t provide the help these children need.

How patronising. Of course they know, they are immersed in the world of SENs and if they have got as far as an EHCP and special school place they will know this in great detail. They are the sort of parents who have sacrificed money, time, careers, their own wellbeing to get the EHCP (contrary to popular belief they are not just handed out). Expecting them to say "oh well, my child can just go without their education after all because the council is short of money and is trying to wriggle out of their statutory responsibilities never mind" is not going to happen.

I was in this situation a year ago.

DS already had a long journey to school but the LA merged two routes making the journey around 2 hours in the morning for DS. He was picked up at 7.15 and didn’t arrive at school until around 9.15 most days, school started at 8.45.

I complained frequently as did the other parents.

I also put it in a stage one complaint to the LA. I stated that DS was distressed by the long journey, didn’t feel safe (the driver was speeding) and they were being cruel.
The stage one complaint was ignored.

I put in a stage 2 complaint and the issue was resolved within a couple of days. It was 5 weeks on stress but with a lot of pushing it was sorted despite the fact we were being lied to by either the taxi company, LA or most probably both!

When did i say SEN children are expendable?
I just think people think there is some magic solution when I don't think there is?
Taxi bills can't be paid with fresh air?

No, cuts must be made to discretionary services, if cuts are required to balance the books.

Statutory services have to be provided.

There's no magic to this. Your council must cover its statutory duties before spending on anything else

I wasn’t really going to add anything more but I do think that there are a fair few ableist posts here. These wouldn’t be acceptable if they were racist, misogynist or posts aimed at a protected group/characteristic.

Why is it acceptable to aim these comments at children who have SEN, children who are disabled? Why should our children accept less than? What is it that makes those posters think that disabled children are worth less than children who do not have those additional needs? And why should we, as the parents of children with SEN, not seek to enforce the legal rights our children have? It is clear that there is a funding crisis, absolutely, but why is it our children that should suffer the consequences? I have a horrible feeling I know why the ableist posters think this.

I am of the view that if you do not have children who have SEN and who need statutory transport you don’t have anything to add here other than upset and offence (whether intended or not). If you have not had to fight for an EHCP for your child you will not understand what this is like. You will not understand the mental, emotional, physical and financial stress that puts on all members of the family caught up in that process and how damaging and life changing that process is, You will not understand the consequences it has for you and your family in ongoing major and minor ways you cannot even begin to imagine. So, please, less of the ableism.

Our children have a statutory right to receive a suitable education and suitable transport that gets them there in a state in which they can learn. No one chooses this situation, but when you find yourself in this position one of the worst parts of it is feeling you have to defend your child against accusations of them somehow wanting more than they should be entitled to. No, they are entitled to be put into the same educational position as any other child. And if you can’t see why and if you think it’s a reasonable provision to cut even further (beyond the cuts to its very bones that have already happened), you need to really consider your own prejudices.

We are currently paying for one day of Taxis ourselves which is £100 that's £400 a month we do not have because the SEN transport is not suitable, and we are stuck we where advised our child would meet the driver and chaperone over the summer that did not happen, a black can arrived to collect on the wrong day they didn't know anything about my child his booster seat wouldn't of fit on the food down chairs, I knew more information about the man that collected an Evri parcel name vehicle reg etc than who showed up to collect my small child.

*a black cab Taxis the above should of read not black can.

Respectfully that’s not the fault of parents with SEN children. Councils have statutory duties towards our children that the, very often, don’t comply with.

i know of several families where the parents have gone bankrupt, losing their businesses and their homes because the council won’t meet the educational needs of our children.

Children’s life chances are being fucking ruined because the local authorities drag their heels in issuing EHCPS, then when issued fail to find places for the children who have them. One of my children has probably had 2 full years of secondary education …. He’s 19!

So pardon me if I’ve got little sympathy for “councils going bankrupt “

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