School Taxi left my children on doorstep

[Pegasus11]

I am a little shaken. I work but I have a normally reliable babysitter who meets my DS (5 and 7) from their school taxi. They are entitled to transport as they were sent to a non catchment school when we moved.

Today my babysitter called me at work at 1545 to say she wasn't at my house. Why she had not let me know if she was stuck in traffic sooner I don't know, but she didn't. I immediately called the taxi firm to ask them to hang onto my kids until I could get there/get someone to meet them.

The reply was that the children had been left on the doorstep and it was my responsibility to make sure there was someone there, not theirs to check the children got in. I know it is my responsibility to make sure there is someone there and I am very upset with the babysitter for not leetting me know sooner too. But the "safety valve" has to be that the taxi firm don't just release reception age children out of the taxi. It could happen if someone coming to collect children had a road accident or anything.

I am just relieved that nothing happened and that my kids are ok, and the taxi driver is a nice man. But it was heart in the mouth territory when the taxi lady calmly told me the kids were "out there" on their own and felt the need to share.

[2boysnamedR]

Agree with everyone who is saying the Taxi is responsible to the LA. It's the LA you need to contact. It's their duty of care. So they subcontract out to the Taxi company but it's still their responsibility.

My son has a Taxi to / from school. Once I got stuck in traffic and was five minutes late. They should phone the office who then follow procedure. In my case I would fully expect my son to be handed to Socail services if no emergency contacts could be found.

Because if they just left him at 4 in my front garden he would be in the main road within seconds. No LA wants that situation. I would ring them.

[Fairuza]

NewLife4Me - if he isn't appropriate or safe to mind children he absolutely shouldn't be driving school children on a contract for the LA!

[kitdomgen]

My ds has always had taxi to school as is SN, the taxi company have always understood, as have i, because was told when service initialised, that they would never leave him at the home if no one there. They would Contact Social Services. He has on odd occasion been waiting in taxi till l I returned home as I have contacted company to say i might be a little late

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

I think the way forward is to query with the taxi firm / contract what safeguarding measures have been put in place for incidents like if the responsible adult is not there, kids cannot get in the house. (as PP poster says who knows if they had collapsed in the house or had an accident on the way there) or god forbid the 'responsible' adult was pissed or high and not safe to leave kids with. schools have such policies so I would expect the transport company to have them too, no one knows what could happen between them leaving school and arriving home so the company should have a policy for all (even ridiculous) possible events. if they haven't then they need to learn from this and get something in place even if it is delivering said children to nearest police station. at the very least they should have an emergency number to ring to discuss arrangements if this happens so at least you knew the situation at once and could arrange someone to meet the taxi as quickly as possible.

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

Could you have not gone home to meet your kids?

There's always one 🙄

[Cookingongas]

Yanbu! The taxi company has behaved appallingly! The babysitter was late- she should have called you sooner ( unless she couldn't - motorway driving for instance) but it was an accident/presumably out of her control and unavoidable- it happens unfortunately.

But the taxi company have been negligent. They had care of children and took no measure to ensure their safety?!? Then denied responsibility when challenged?!?

I'd far have preferred social services/emergency procedure to have been followed if it were my children. In that scenario id be embarrassed but my children safe. They were not safe sat Alone on a door step!

[enterthedragon]

Look up the LA transport policy, you may find it on the LA local offer, or on the main website, there is always a procedure for when this happens and the taxi company are obliged to follow the procedure (they can lose the contract for failure to do this).

[PandasRock]

The taxi company is out of order.

From the moment they pick up your dc from school, they have a duty of care to look after them until they hand them over directly to the designated person. There will be a protocol to follow in the event the children are not met, and it will certainly not involve leaving the children on their own.

I would definitely take this much further.

[HappyFatty]

Ooof I feel for you OP xx My main concern would be that my kids might seem fine but might be panicky about it happening again. Kids tend to soak up stuff like this and hang onto it. I would complain to the Nanny Agency and the Taxi Company, I'd probably not sleep for the 'what if's' for some time.

[JudyCoolibar]

Mumsnet really is bizarre sometimes. Surely no-one seriously believes that any school transport system is set up on the basis that the taxi driver is authorised to leave small children on the doorstep if there is no-one at home? Yet there is an extraordinary number of people on here who apparently think that's absolutely fine.

[titchy]

Both your childminder AND the LEA (they are responsible for the taxi contract) needs rockets up their arses. Complain, in writing, loud and hard.

Please don't worry about getting the driver into trouble - if the LEA has given the taxi clear instructions, which it should have done otherwise they wouldnt have the contract, then the driver very clearly was not following those directions. Next time he decides not to follow instructions could have tragic consequences.

[NattyTile]

Definitely not allowed here. If no adult home - and must be an adult, not a teen big sibling either - then child would stay on taxi and return to depot, and SS would be called.

Taxi drivers doing school runs for LA must be DBS checked and have safeguarding training.

It's a little frustrating - my child prefers to wait at the bottom of the drive and that's fine in the morning but escort has to see them through the door and make eye contact with me when handing back. But I'd rather that than thinking they'd ever be just abandoned.

[shazzarooney999]

Taxi driver should have taken the children to the police or socail services, if you question this it may end up that you have socail services on the doorstep anyway.

[Flouncy]

It would be treated as a serious issue in my area too. The taxi driver would risk loosing the contract for such behaviour.

Really poor form on the babysitters part too - they're not blameless.

I hope the DC are okay.

With my eldest DS who is autistic so has a carer plus driver on his transport we have a selection of people who can be called. The driver has my mobile and that of various family who live very near by. We now have systems in place for if i'm not home.

Its happened three times now in three years. Once my mobile was dead and DS2 was delayed at school, once very similar to above circumstance and DS got dropped at wrong location, once an accident that closed the road infront of me with no way of turning around until police came and reversed people back but I was able to contact the taxi driver.

[humblesims]

I would be raising merry hell with the taxi firm (and slightly quieter hell with the sitter). The taxi driver is 'responsible' for the children from the moment they leave school and he takes 'responsibility'. Absolutely ridiculous. Raise it with the school and complain to the taxi firm. There are all sorts of reasons why there might not be someone at home - emergencies, traffic etc etc.

[Hairyfairy01]

The taxi driver has a 'duty of care'. I would be livid.

[Jengnr]

I couldn't give a hairy bollock who else is at fault here (although the babysitter is), the taxi company should ABSOLUTELY not left small children unaccompanied. No way, no excuses, not ever.

There should be a policy for if there isn't anyone there, which would probably mean contacting the police or social services but leaving small children alone? Just no.

[Jengnr]

*have left

[FasterThanASnakeAndAMongoose]

The taxi company failed in their duty of care. Luckily your dc didn't come to any harm. I would absolutely complain to the LA though. Lessons need to be learned so it doesn't happen again.

I would also wipe the floor with the babysitter.

[CrazyDuchess]

After reading the responses - I change my position, the Taxi cab did fail in its duty to care for your children and if I put myself in your position I would have totally lost my shit!

[Pegasus11]

DS1 is smug about how well they managed because he was in charge. Got to love kids.

It is true that taxi babysitter type arrangements are not ideal but you have to manage life as best as you can. Bigger hugs for my big fellas tonight!

P.S. Koala do not worry. Taxis are not the norm. Our catchment school, which is 2 doors up the road, is full. So we are in a silly position where our kids go to school in a taxi while people arrive

[Absolutelynothingelse]

In this instance the taxi should have driven your children on to the nearest police station so that they would be in safe hands and charged you the fare.

[That1950sMum]

The babysitter was clearly the person most at fault.

Could you not have asked the taxi to take the children somewhere else? It wasn't fair to ask them to step in and babysit.

Glad your children are ok!

[MilkChicUK]

That happened to someone else near my Mum. Emergency situation where another child had to go to A&E, I believe and the parents had phoned to let school know, had no transport and the taxi driver knowingly left a 4yr old on the doorstep with no one home. Terrifying! There was a massive uproar obviously because regardless of whose responsibility it is, you would hope someone given the care of a 4 year old regularly would know this was unacceptable and neglectful. I'm pretty sure the taxi firm / contractor is responsible and as with school / childminder, the back up would be police or social services. I'm so sorry you had to deal with this.

[Fairuza]

When taxi companies take on school transport contracts, they do so taking on the responsibilities that comes with it. They should have safeguarding training and a safeguarding policy. It's not unreasonable to expect them to act accordingly - they choose to do this work!

OP, you really need to complain to the LA. It's good that your children were fine, but they were put at risk of harm and other children might not be so lucky.