To think this transport company is taking the piss?

[OrangeandGoldMrsDeVere]

Ds goes to a SN school.
He gets school transport because it his nearest suitable school and it is nearly 3 miles away.

The company providing the company has been a bit crap at times. Often very ate, frequent cap angle of personnel, poor communication etc.they once forgot to drop my son off at the right place, leaving him traumatised.

But I have sucked it up, bought up the more serious points with the sen team and got on with it.
I appreciate that transport is provided even if it is a bit unrealiable

I have just received my new pick up times for the new term (well I had to phone for them as ds starts on Monday)

They want to pick him up at 8.47am.

There is no way that he will arrive at school on time if he is picked up at this time. There are at least 3 children at his pick up point and one is a wheelchair user. It takes longer to load with chairs because they need to use the lift. They then have to drive through rush hour traffic, at least three sets of lighspts and a major roundabout to get to school.

They journey on a quite morning is at least 15 minutes (google says 8mins, but they do not factor traffic or lights). I am not sure if it's the last pick up point either.

Is it fair that my son is late everyday to school because he has to rely on transport? Does the LEA not have the same responsibilities to get children to school on time as I do?

This is also going to make it impossible for me to get my other children to school for 8.55 and nursery for 9am.

The borough pay a huge amount for this service. It should be fit for purpose. Just because my son has SN doesn't mean it's ok for him to miss school.

Last term pick up was 8.17. It would have been a rush to get them all in but doable.

Now I don't know how it's going to work out.

yasooonbu! that is fucking outrageous! i have no idea who you could complain to. would it be worth contacting your local mp?

Have you spoken to the school, Mrs Devere? After all it is all the kids on the bus who will be late, not just yours; school complaining to the LEA may produce some results - it did with ds's school.

I will when they start on Monday. I want them to tell me what time he is getting in.
It makes me wonder what time he has been getting into class for the last two years if they are all so complacent about it.

I took this issue up once with LA Transport dept after DDs bus driver retired and they put agency drivers on the bus for 6 mths. Her bus arrived any time between 8.35 and 8.50 am - the school is 14 miles away!!! No one at school seemed bothered about its late arrival - in fact I am told they don't get marked down as 'late' unless they arrive after 9.30am (the school day is supposed to start at 9.00). The escort on the bus was also a TA at school, so she must have been turning up 1/2 hr late for work and leaving her class understaffed!- but still no one said anything - it just seems to be accepted.

I will add though that at DS's mainstrream secondary school, the public service bus which the children catch from our village is late nearly every day. The children miss registration/assembly on a daily basis, but the school just acknowledge that they come on X bus route and that is always late!!!! In fact we had to get DS on separate transport because of this - he has ASD and wouldn't have coped with turning up late for school every day!!! So it may not be seen as discrimination - it obviously happens at other schools too.

I agree with you that your son's situation is unacceptable, but wouldn't hold your breath over the school or LA agreeing with you!!! And they won't give a monkeys about how you are going to get your other children to school on time!!!

No I haven't really pushed the point about the others. They won't care.

I suspected this was a common situatuation. It's a disgrace that is accepted so complacently.

Look at all the threads we have on MN praising the punctuality/attendance reward schemes. It is widely seen to be essential that patents get their kids to school on time and the height of slackness if they do not.

So why is ok for sodding contrated companies to do it!

Update incase anyone is interested.

Got increasingly frustrated and upset last week as my calls and emails were ignored. I am afraid I had to put the phone down on a young woman who kept talking at me and when I tried to interject said 'IF I CAN JUST FINISH!' after she had failed to do what she said she would.

She also told me that as the buses took so long to unload it wouldn't matter want time they got to school.

I did the drive on Saturday because it felt like I was going a bit mad. On a weekend, no traffic, no pick ups and no unloading, the route takes 8 mins.

This morning they were doing two pick ups including wheelchairs plus unloading and rush hour traffic. They said they could do it in 13mins.

Except they didn't. They turned up 22 minutes late and told they mum of the little boy who uses a chair that they couldn't take him. They had no wheelchair clamps on the bus. There wer no other children on the bus which means ours is the first pick up (unlikely and if so why so late?) or the children before us all wheelchair users who couldn't be picked up.

I would like to mention at this point that this is a Paralympic borough.

Omg that s awful. Not sure what to do. My dd ASD has just started SN school and gets transported, they have been good so far

That's awful.

I spoke to the school. Half the pupils have not turned up and the rest were very late.
The school have only just found out about the pick up times and were not impressed when I told them about the bus company saying they (the school) do not mind the children being late.

This may sound over the top but I have involved my MP. Its because my past experience of this company is that they ignore parents. They do nothing and will not answer complaints. If they do respond they simply deny everything. This is accepted by the LA.

I have had enough. It is simple. The children should be taken to school on time. The parents should be kept aware of changes to routes and staff and there should be system in place for warning of long delays.

I have waited for 60 minutes for a bus that had broken down at the school. The company waited an hour to let anyone know even though they knew about it immediately.

They forgot to take my son to his club. The kept the bus sat at the bus stop for half an hour and then bought him to my door. He was terrifed and thought I had left him. It took him two terms to stop asking me if the driver knew where to take him every day.

I am fed up.

I don't think involving your MP is over the top, infact I would be encouraging the other parents to do the same

for you and your son.

Can you get together with the other parents and stage a sit in at the council office reception until someone takes you seriously?

(I used to work in a council and we were very effectively intimidated by this tactic - just keep escalating to higher and higher managers).

YANBU

Have you looked at the IPSEA or SOSSEN website. They have stuff on transport. Your ds is entitled to a full time education. Is there a tool on the AA or RAC website that shows how long a journey takes during rush hour that you could use to show the transport company is planning for your ds to arrive late. Surely the bus needs to arrive no later than 8.50 to allow children to be taken off bus and escorted to classroom.

If they can't move the time earlier I would be tempted to take your other kids to school and then take in ds myself by car at least for the first week while your other child settles at school.

The fact that it takes longer to unload the kids with wheelchairs should mean that they arrive earlier not later! grr makes me so angry (and also a little relieved that ds now goes to a provision near enough for me to drag walk him there - though I know when older we will have to go back to using transport again)

I couldnt find anything relating to the issue on IPSEA and I tried to phone but they are so busy. I know they are excellent but getting through is hard.
I dont know SOSSEN but will check them out.
I called The Disability Law Helpline and spoke to them. I have to call to make an appt next week.

I am very worried about taking in DS myself. Any sniff that it is a possiblity and they might try and stop my transport. I really cant do without it. OH cannot do school runs. He cannot function in the mornings so would be safe and it would affect his health badly (he has MS).

I would prefer to take DS myself TBH it would be less hassle but its just not possible long term.

They have had 7 weeks to sort this out. SEVEN weeks fgs.

I would contact passenger transport at the LEA to tell them of the concerns you have. Does your child go by school mini bus or is it a taxi company? , as if its a mini bus you are reliant on them being ready for school as soon as the bus turns up, otherwise it makes everyone late. The LEA wanted to change my sons transport he also goes to a sn school which meets his needs best, but it is quite a journey, they wanted to use a mini bus and he was to be the first pick up, but it meant he would be travelling for an hour and a half and thats assuming that every one was ready on time. I contacted passenger transport and said this was unacceptable and they agreed that this was not ok as anything beyond an hour is not acceptable, anyway he goes by taxi with another child which works well. Hope this helps!

Lea person is useless. You just say his name and people groan.
It's not far to the school but we are in London do traffic is issue. I prefer bus because it's more social for him and lots of children go from area so not sure cab is an option. Very densely populated area so don't think it would be economical.

The escort confirmed they are sticking to 8.47 tomorrow. Presumably they will have chairs on board so God knows what time they will turn up.

Thanks for all your suggestions and support :)

perhaps link to the SN section? - somebody may have dealt with same problem

Yadnbu

I am disgusted tbh.

Goodness me YANBU.

Have you tried contacting the local paper? If it is a Paralympic borough that makes a good angle for them. I'm sure I'm teaching you to suck eggs here but a good email that basically writes the article for them might be attractive?

I work for a LA in the transport unit (Scotland), specifically dealing with school transport including ASN transport for special schools.

I'm disgusted at the attitude of the transport contractors and disappointed in the other people that are responsible for transport.

If it was in my area, this matter would be taken seriously. As we see it, the transport contractor is there to provide a service and if they don't, they can receive penalty points, which can result in the contract being withdrawn.

Your best bet is not to take it up with the contractor but with the LA as they were the ones that awarded the contract. Is there a specific transport team within the LA that deals with the transport or is it the school? If it's the school, take it up with the headteacher. If they aren't helpful, find out who the head of education is and take it up with them. Also include your local councillors (if you have them in your area) and also your MP.

You could also threaten the LA that you will take it to the local papers, people do that all the time to us, regardless of whether they have a case or not!

op you have to keep complaining. if you are who I think you are, you will know that I had an issue with dd's transport. I just kept complaining, got school and social worker involved.
go back to the useless LEA ask to go higher and keep going.
contact your mp
this is discrimination.
if this was a ms bus there is no way it would be allowed/

His all.
Got a flurry of emails today.
My MP got straight on the case and I have been contacted by senior managers of all parties involved.
The fact that yesterday was such a monumental disaster has probably been quite helpful.
Instead of a few, easily ignored people, being inconvenienced and entire borough-full were.

funky what you say is very interesting, thank you. I think this company has become complacent. It is huge and it is easy to be ignored because you never speak to the same person twice.
I really feel they are so used to getting away with poor service they consider it an impertinence if anyone dares complain.

Meanwhile the buses are still turning up late. Ds's was and I saw one on my way to wrk this morning at well gone 9.

Those poor kids. Some of them are new to the schools this term. What a horrible start for them.

Great news that people are taking it seriously, what a shame it's taken so long and so much effort before someone sees sense!

Well done, hope it continues to improve.

good for you for keeping with this - many parents who can't face another fight will have cause to be grateful if you can get this improved in your borough. They are running the service for their own convenience and maximum profit without realising the customer is user not just the local authority.

You stick at it, OP - and if it looks like it needs kicking, what about getting onto the papers? They love this kind of story. Maybe we'll see you in the DM?