What am I supposed to do RE School?

[Soubriquet]

We no longer have a car. We cannot afford to replace it either which means we can no longer get the dc to school.

dd has council transport but it’s from the local town rather than our actual destination, which means she has to get the 7am bus, to get into town, in order to catch her 8am bus to school. Then the reverse happens and she doesn’t get home will gone 5. Purely because of the times plus it’s going to cost us £15 a week!!

ds on the other hand is still at primary school and his school is not in any form of walking distance, nor is there a bus that goes that way. The council has also declined us for transport (which I will appeal) because it’s not the nearest school. I’m aware it isn’t the nearest but he’s in year 6! Am I really supposed to transfer schools for 5 months, fork out for new uniforms, and uproot a child who is on the ECHP and SEN plan at his school? Where they know how to handle him?

It’s a bloody nightmare. He’s been absent the last two days because we genuinely cannot get him to school!!

We are in the process of talking to both schools to see if we can come up with a solution

Sorry if this has already been posted and I missed it, but if you're registered disabled have you looked into Motability?

I’m not sure about motorbility because PiP refused to give me high rate mobility. But my condition has changed since they last saw me, so I do need to ring them and declare that it’s worse.

That's always been my understanding, too, if the school is more than 3 miles away from the child's home. Secondary age kids here go to a school 5.5 miles away, because the town has outgrown the local secondary. The LEA provides the school bus and the parents don't have to pay.

I was going to ask what happens when a child with an EHCP moves to a different LEA that's a very long way away.

I know my LEA has funded weekly boarding where there is no appropriate provision within the LEA. A friend's child went to a school 50 miles away, and the LEA funded the place and transport home for the weekend and back to school again,

Haven't read the whole thread but if there's nothing in section I about the school being parental preference and it literally just names the school, the LA have acknowledged it's the nearest SUITABLE school so must provide transport despite it not being the nearest.

Theres also gov guidance around transport times so your daughter shouldn't be expected to do any more than 75 mins travel each way if that's any help.

coram child law give free advice re sen issues

There are parts of Sussex that are having the same issue, and that's in the relatively densely populated south-east. There's been a lot of new housing built and the available school places haven't been increased to keep up.

And that's without factoring in the special needs provision that some children need.

If a child moves to a different LA and it is no longer practical for them to attend the school named, the new LA must place the child at an appropriate school until the EHCP is amended.

It's really not that uncommon in rural areas. If you build 12 houses on the outskirts of a small village with a tiny primary school, children that move in may well have to be bussed to the next nearest primary, which is likely to be more than 2 miles away.

It happened to a village a couple of miles from where I live. The county council raised objections to the planning application for the housing because of the impact on the village school, which is so tiny that it has mixed age classes, but the district council granted it anyway, on grounds of housing need. The county council is now bearing the cost of transporting some of the children from the village to the next village. And they're building 2 small housing developments there now, so it may well happen again there.

It’s so good that you’ve at least now got secure housing. At least that’s one positive. Some helpful posts, I hope you can get the transport issues resolved soon.

Sorry that is not quite correct. The old LA must transfer the plan out (should be done as soon as notified of the move). The new LA completed the transfer in. However, can only be transferred out and in once a new address has been established.

The new LA will be required to hold a review asap particularly if a new school placement search is required. If there are any queries concerns for the parents with immediate concerns. Best practice would be a professionals meeting to discuss the situation and try and reach a solution quickly including arranging tuition if the child cannot attend the old school. A child cannot attend a school that is not named on section I. For section I to be amend there needs to be a review with evidence for the change.

Whilst I did not cover the full process, what I wrote is correct. See Guidance for local authorities on the treatment of education, health and care plans when a child or young person moves out of or into their area - GOV.UK which specifically says, "Where attendance at the school or educational institution specified in the EHC plan would no longer be practicable due to the child or young person’s move, the new local authority must place the child or young person at an appropriate school or educational institution until the plan is formally amended." That is, of course, exactly what I said.

I think you need to look at the standard of provision that has been set. It's defined as 'adequate.' Not good. Not outstanding. Just 'adequate' and you're bloody lucky if you get that. My LA has just been inspected and found to be actually making things worse in some cases. They're proud it's better than it was, but from a parents perspective you wouldn't believe the cash they waste every year on shoving square pegs into round holes and holding meetings. It's amazing how you've always missed the monthly meeting no matter when in the month you contact them. But sure, let's blame the parents.

Almost no office jobs now use the telephone. So much stuff is done by email or via teams calls where you can turn on automatic live transcription.
I havent had a phone on my desk in years or a work phone number in about a decade.

And most office jobs will involve no heavy lifting, be sat down most of the day and give you an annual leave entitlement of 25 days a year and usually some dependents leave as well.
Lots of people in offices work flexibly and part time and are able to shuffle things around to take a child to appointments.
A friend has a young child under 3 different consultants for various medical conditions plus long term medication that needs monitoring and she and her partner have no issues at all maintaining very high level demanding roles in the south east.

Meanwhile, I have a child under multiple consultants and who also has multiple medications and my work couldn't get rid of me quick enough due to all the time off I had to take because the standard leave wasn't anywhere near enough.

and I'm not also disabled with my own consultants and appointments to manage like OP is.

It's amazing how everyone is different and that not all work places are supportive.

Good for them do they have a nearly 16 year old who has the cognitive ability of a toddler?
Just becsuse your friend can manage other families cant ,can you can find me wrap around care for a teenager for before and after school and school holidays, this would need to be 1:1 who has experience with challenging behaviour
No thought not.

All this ‘my friend manages so you can too’ has to stop. I have been trying for 5 years to find wraparound/holiday care for my disabled child. No one will take on the responsibility. Thankfully my DH and I can work flexibly enough that we manage between us (although it means at least one of us working through the night regularly) but finding a job with that level of flexibility is almost impossible. The only reason we can do it is because we’re both at a very senior level and can manage our own diaries.

Yes seriously. Get in the real world. These estates are springing up everywhere. The indigenous residents keep complaining. They keep saying there's no school provision, no health care provision, no transport provision. They are labelled nimbys. Noone listens to them. Then these situations arise - which costs the council a fortune.
The latest bright idea is to build on floodplains. Local residents are objecting to that too. The powers that be are ignoring them as well

Exactly. We are relatively rural.

A housing estate got permission for 1000 new houses near us. We have 3 primary schools ( 1 of which was closed due to falling numbers ironically just before the first house started going up) and 1 GP surgery. One single GP surgery. The surgery (among others) put in so many objections to the build project stating that the area simply DOES NOT HAVE the infrastructure to take a 1000 new households. The development went ahead anyway and the final 150 or houses are being built. There is one road into town that now goes past this development and the roads alone can't cope. It's insane. So now we have 2 primary schools and 1 GP surgery. No dentists. 2 primary schools now full to bursting and a boarded up empty primary school with a 'Development Opportunity' sale sign on it's gates.

Our local SEN primary? It's ten miles away. Our local SEN secondary is 12 miles away. The secondary is on a bus route. The primary isn't.

Some people simply do not LIVE in places where they are spoiled for choices- be it schools, or public transport links. I'm always amazed that some people on MN seem to be amazed or sceptical about this.

You'll have to fill out a change of circumstances form, and I would recommend doing so BEFORE you get to renewal of your current claim as they will back date the CoC form to when your condition altered, but they may not do so if you inform them at renewal.

Go through the entire form as if they are idiots, making it clear 'this has not improved/this has got worse/this is a new condition' and remember to treat each question as if they have NO other information at all, or they start to assume things you've not said!

And then wait for potentially bloody ages. I waited 19 months. But I believe turnaround times are faster now.

Yep.

With DLA, not PIP but the advice I was given to attempt avoid MR's, tribunals etc was exactly to fill in the forms as if they are idiots. I was specifically told to spell out the fact that my son can't walk as many times as relevant on the forms and that if I felt like I was repeating myself then I was doing something right.