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.

[Moistly]

Suewoo

[happybee1]

My dc's have had school transport and once I was late to meet the bus. The driver waited outside my house until I arrived and my dc's were in yr 2. My friend had the taxi service and was late most days as she had to collect her other DC from a different school. The taxi driver always waited for her. She moved in the end as she was not comfortable putting her DC in a taxi every day on her own. I don't really understand how the council find this method of transport acceptable, I asked my school to put my yr6 DC in a taxi as i was stuck in A&E, they refused.
Anyway, I would be calling the council what the taxi driver did was totally unacceptable and dangerous. If he does it again there could be a completely different terrible outcome.

[Stepmotherofdragons]

Snowgirl I agree there are enough places but why do town planners allow family housing to be built where there isnt enough places? If houses are built then they know that there will be an increased demand on schools so they need to build a new school or extend existing ones. If that can't be done then use the development land for one bedroom flats or retirement housing.

It isn't the ops fault in anyway but it is an example why this country is so skint.

With the special school transport, I meant minibuses rather than coaches. If the local authority planned it right the minibuses could also be used for trips out during the day too instead of paying for coaches to take groups swimming etc.

[Rainbow]

Irrespective of who is at fault for an adult not being there to meet them, the taxi driver abandoned them on the doorstep. Just for example, if your babysitter had been involved in an accident and couldn't contact you, those children could have been there for hours alone. Yes the babysitter should have let you know soon, but the taxi driver should definitely not be leaving 2 young children on the doorstep. It is a child protection issue.

[chipmonkey]

I can't believe anyone here thinks it's acceptable to leave children that age alone on a doorstep! The situation was the babysitter's fault but if she had died or collapsed, your children could potentially have been alone for hours and you would have been oblivious because no-one even had the decency to tell you your children were alone! I would be inclined to look for a new childminder but the taxi-driver should never have left them alone.

[Monmo2124]

I think we as parents should accept responsibility too . In a case where a baby sitter is there to provide aftercare , I think it is parents job to set an alarm ( 5 mins after expected drop off ) and check with the sitter that wether the kids have come home.

Also to those who are saying that taxi driver should have stayed with the kids , Are you serious? He could've been made to look like a paedophile , who was unnecessarily hanging around with kids . The only thing he could've done was call the cops

[LIZS]

Is there any update from LA? Presumably dc were taxied from/to home since , did you or babysitter speak to the taxi driver?

[honkinghaddock]

Monmo2124 - Many of us have children who use school transport so will know what should happen. There are procedures for if a parent or carer is not home and the taxi driver should have followed them.

[AlpacaPicnic]

Can I just bow down and worship Pegasus for remaining calm in the face of such stupidity.

I mean on this thread btw! Why are there one of two goady twats who insist on making up their own version of events instead of RTFT??!

[MissHooliesCardigan]

I'm glad sense seems to have prevailed on this thread (apart from the obligatory quota of goady twats). The taxi driver was totally wrong, no doubt about it. I suppose one saving grace was that the kids were together so would have hopefully felt safer. A child on their own would have been terrified in that situation.
I had a party at home for DS's 6th party. One of the parents didn't turn up at pick up time and hadn't turned up several hours later. Phone went straight to voicemail.She was a lone parent so I had no contact details for dad. I started to phone round hospitals and was told she'd been bought in by ambulance after collapsing in the street on the way to pick up her DS. When she regained consciousness, she couldn't get a signal to call me. He ended up staying the night. That's just what you do, surely, however inconvenient it might be? Or should I have just turfed him out/dumped him on his doorstep?

[trafalgargal]

Have to agree, I've never heard so much complete thickness in one thread.

No it is not OK to leave a child of infant school unsupervised and unattended in ANY situation.

No matter how dim a taxi driver is the contract between the taxi company and LEA will spell out the drivers responsibilities so even if they aren't bright enough to work it out themselves it will be advised to them as one of the many conditions schools contract drivers have to follow. No one forces them to do schools work ,it's a choice they make as its regular and pretty much guaranteed work..

Minibuses owned and operated by the schools wouldn't work for schools for transport as they wouldn't be big enough....multiple trips would not be practical either as children waiting for their run would need paid for supervision and approved premises to wait in, would need to be back by school end guaranteed so useless for many educational trips and most school sporting journeys are for after school matches so again not practical.

Schools have always had catchment area issues . I used to ride the bus to high school passing another high school on the way as the catchment areas were so manipulated due to schools not been evenly spread out (land is cheaper in undeveloped areas or common land and schools are built with cost as important a consideration if not more than catchment area.plus demographics change over the years too)

I suspect this taxi driver could be charged with endangerment of a child so all those who are considering dumping any children on a doorstep because you are far too important to bother with making sure a child is safe before roaring off might like to consider the risk of criminal charges if simple common sense is too much for you.

[WeekendAway]

I have no idea what time the baby sitter is expected to be at your house but common sense would dictate that she should always leave enough time to allow for any hold-ups. Having said that, if she has to drive then there is always the possibility of a major hold up due to an accident or road closure that no-one could foresee or be blamed for, which means the whole system you have in place sounds flawed to me, given that your children are so young.

Personally I would be looking for a child minder who is willing to collect the children directly from school and take them to her house until you are able to pick them up from there. That way, if she has an emergency or a problem getting there at least you know the school will hang on to them.

[trafalgargal]

Oh and I guess the idiot who made the pedeophile comment missed the point that school contract drivers hold all the required police checks and the contract copy is carried so it'd be very plain to anyone but the biggest fool that the taxi driver was legitimate if in a delayed situation. Plus they have to advise SS if they can't speak to a parent.

I suppose if you get the sort of knuckle dragger who thinks any adult man with a child in their car must be a pedeophile then there is a risk but no greater risk than when the taxi driver is transporting the child at any other time .....it's hard to legislate for morons -bit like this thread really , most people are reasonable but a few are utterly irrational.

[Pegasus11]

Ha, thank you Alpaca. I expected some people to take the view that there was some measure of fault on my part. I don't take it personally, I just don't agree with them. We try to give our kids the right messages in life. We hope they see us working hard, doing the best we can and treating people how we would wish to be treated. I hope when the time comes they will not resent us for working and will see we were trying to manage lots of different responsibilities .... oh and pay the mortgage! Time will tell ....

However, this thread has been really helpful, as it helped me calm down and I didn't know the LEA had a specific procedure to be followed when nobody is home. The procedure wasn't followed on this occasion, and it have flagged it to the LEA so if there is a "next time" affecting any of the children in that taxi company's care, hopefully it would be.

[Pegasus11]

The babysitter is supposed to be, and has on every other occasion been, at my house by 1530 which is the time school finishes. She is therefore normally there for 20 minutes before the kids arrive. It transpires that she was at the hospital as her elderly father had had a "turn" and she went with him when he was admitted. She left in time to get to ours, but there was an accident on the main road and the diversion took her miles out of the way. It is inexplicable that she didn't call me until it was too late and she knows it. She is only with us until the end of term so no point taking it further.

Doesn't alter the fact that the kids would also be on their own if I was picking them up, or DH, or my mum and we got stuck, or had an accident.
We have a total of 5 emergency contacts with the taxi firm. These include me and DH, my parents, my sister and (last resort) army welfare. Had any of these been called by the taxi firm someone would have been on the move or an alternative arranged, and quickly.

[boo2410]

Pegasus, so glad everything seems to be turning out ok. Hopefully as you like the taxi driver they will have a quiet word with him and it won't happen again. Common sense says he shouldn't have left the children on their own so who knows why he did.

You've had a few crap posters on here but most have been really helpful. Thankfully I've never been in this position so I have learned something from this thread.

You sound lovely and hats off to your husband too, we all appreciate the career he has chosen.

Best wishes to you all.

[Yokohamajojo]

How worrying! totally unacceptable by the taxi firm! I can only imagine the anguish you went through during those 20 minutes before you got home

[Monmo2124]

I am really sorry , I did miss the point where it was said that taxi drivers are properly investigated and have dbs clearance before picking children . Which is a relief :) I thought it was something like a lady I know does, hires a local company and they pick and drop her children .
So I am really sorry to you original poster ❤️❤️You can give the company a call and say next time if something like Happens, this is the safe address ( like a friend / family / neighbor ) you can drop them off with and you can tell the person you have allocated as safe person as well .

[Monmo2124]

And if there's no safe person around you then drop them with local social services/ police station .

[hallgreenmiss]

Monmo, I'm sure the local police would be delighted at the prospect of doing some childminding

[RB68]

Police would pass to Social services and would have all the contacts for that so not unsensible in my view

[kelda]

I am not in the UK but my son goes to school on a SN school bus that picks him up from and delivers him to my house. If there is no adult to receive him, he will be taken to the police station. There is no way he would ever be left on the doorstep. I would be furious with the taxi firm if they did this with my child.

[peachpudding]

If the taxi driver is supposed to look after the children until a parent comes home then its the taxi drivers fault. But I would be surprised if it was because that would mean the council would have to cost and plan for potential childcare by taxi driver.

I would say its neglect by the babysitter, her excuse is nowhere near good enough. She should have rang an emergency number the second she knew she wouldn't be there on time. That's neglect.

As a single parent I could easily be delayed getting home and DC left on doorstep, so I take emergency precautions. DC has emergency phone in school bag and practise using it. They know which neighbours doors to knock on if I am not there. There is a key hidden so they can get into house in an emergency. A seven year old could easily do all those 3 things.

Personally I would never let 2 young children regularly get a taxi on their own, a CRB check would not reassure me. I have know people with a record pass them because it doesn't always flag up convictions from abroad.

[GColdtimer]

peach, please do rtft.

[trafalgargal]

Have you considered reading the thread peach -it might stop you sounding a bit silly