To be OUTRAGED at the cost of this school transport?

[FidgetyFingers]

DS attends a Special School which requires him to use a LA provided school bus as it is too far for him to reach alone (SEN and 3 mile distance ) and he cannot be dropped off due to logistics (other DC need to be in a different place at same time, only have one car which is needed for DH to work).

Up until age 16 it is provided free but as 16-18 years apparently don't legally have to continue in education, the LA will not provide free transport so expect us to pay a 'contribution' of £25 per week! If I can't magic up £300 for the first term in advance, he won't be picked up! This is on top of all the normal back to school outgoings.

Considering a weekly unlimited bus ticket is £10 a week if he was going to college like his brother, AIBU to think this is extortionate?

I asked the LA to explain how they expect parents of SN children to have a greater income just because they have turned 16 and they couldn't explain other than to state 'policy'.

@Guienne a large group of parents/carers from our area are currently challenging legally at the moment on behalf of all families affected, the LEA are getting around the discretion and Equalities @ct by offering personal budgets to selected students. The finance which is actually an insignificant amount isn’t the issue for most families it’s the logistics of transporting a severely physically or learning disabled young person, many of the families with di@bled children are in financial dire straits and cannot organise sapecialist transport, many childr3n at dds school need medically trained escorts and adapted vehicles (which is currently provided by the LEA) so 15p per mile personal budget is not going to cut it.

That being said money doesn’t grow on trees and currently post 16 pay £300 per term unless in receipt of income related benefits.

YANBU

I remember this interview last year.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-39301001/i-gave-up-work-to-take-disabled-son-to-school

Yep, I’m cross about this.

Costs me £1100 a year to get my dd to sixth form 7 miles away. We’re in a village so all the secondaries are that far away, it’s one of the designated schools for our village so I haven’t sent her anywhere special.

Oh and I moaned to my mp who didn’t give a Tory shit. Got a reply saying if I didn’t like it she could find an apprenticeship instead.

@FrayedHem yup I had to give up work to care for dd as she averages 2 to 3 hours sleep a night and have no ss help, I am not alone I know many sn parents who had to do the same, luckily dh has a fairly reasonable income but many aren’t so fortunate.

Op google vulnerable students bursary. You may be able to claim this which will help your ds may also be able to clain ESA if u give up your child benefit.

Rosie

A question for your group of parent carers to ask your LA, in a Freedom of Information request is:

"How much does the LA pay per mile to its staff and the councillors, to reimburse business travel?"

If, as is likely, it's 45p per mile (or any figure, if it's more than the 15p per mile, or whatever they pay parents of disabled children), isn't it indirect disability discrimination against those parents? Ask the Equality and Human Rights Commission?

I don’t think it’s extortionate, I’ll be honest. I pay the same give or take a couple of pounds for my DH’s bus travel to and from his school (SEND)

Sorry, that should have said NOT SEND

It clearly is extortionate if the parent cannot produce £300 up front at short notice and as a result their child cannot get to school.

I agree on the short notice element of it being really unreasomable.

LadysFingers
You're in danger of not making a like for like comparison there. Someone's business trips from a fixed place of work are to avoid being out of pocket as a result of doing a company's or council's business.

That's not the same as a parent of any child doing a school run.

I think the funding of schools and access requirements is a mess and a product of central government policy, but you can't reasonably compare post 16 school travel to employees at work. It's just not the same.

@maisypops
“It’s not the same as a parent of any child doing the school run”
But we’re not talking about the parent of any child doing the school run, we’re talking about SN schools which in most cases are not at all local and transport is essential, all things being equal nt post 16 child gets themselves to school by whatever means necessary, car, bus, cycle whatever, but take away SN transport or demand payment upfront with no warning and in many cases that child will have no accesss to education regardless of how much per mile the LEA pay.

Why isn't it the same, MaisyPops? The parent doing the school run will have exactly the same running costs for their car, and the chances are that if their child didn't have SN that child could walk, or go on public transport.

Guienne
One is someone claiming mileage as part of their job and the other is the school run as part of being a parent.

I'm all up for pushing for a reform of how the government organises and funds post 16 transport and SEND pots of money, but that doesn't mean drawing fake comparisons between work mileage and the school run.

A parent with a disabled child has most likely already compromised their earning power, having no choice, be living in an area with nearby mainstream schools and a good range of public transport: all of which are inaccessible to their disabled child

Special Schools are fewer and likely to be a long distance from home

The situation of those of you with NT post-16s is not the point

Absolutely. The amount of wilful ignorance on this thread is fucking depressing.

If you don’t have experience of the additional pressure/financial constraints/access to education/transport/society in general that being disabled or having a disabled child puts on you, wind your neck in.

£300 up front is a lot of money, especially if you’re a carer OP, it might be worth checking with the CAB if there’s anything he/you are entitled to that would help towards it.

Please try not to take some of the goadier posters to heart, two I recognise in particular as hovering on ASN threads and being shitty. Says more about them than anyone else!!

As an aside the sentence “SN or not” is one of my most hated fucking sentences. It is always, always said by someone who has no fucking idea that there is no “or not” when it comes to SN/disability.

I don’t take my autism off at night and put it on the bedside table. Neither do my children. For us, and for everyone with a disability, there is no “or not”x

YeTalkShiteHen
Hey I agree there needs to be a better set up and think short notice is unreasonable, but that's government policy at the moment on post 16 (I also have commented loads on SEND threads and have recently been talking about how crap I think the system is for parents).

It's perfectly possible to think a system needs changing whilst also thinking it's ridiculous to start trying to compare work mileage arrangements with the school run.

It's perfectly possible to think a system needs changing whilst also thinking it's ridiculous to start trying to compare work mileage arrangements with the school run

The comparison was that if councils pay more for staff while denying children with SEN access to school (which is what will happen if OP can’t stump up £300!) while claiming its budget cuts, they can afford it, they’re just choosing not to.

You seem to have little understanding of life with a disability, or a child with a disability and are doing what many do, basing everything on what it would be like for a child without a disability.

Which is missing the point so absolutely spectacularly that I don’t know where to start.

It clearly is extortionate if the parent cannot produce £300 up front at short notice and as a result their child cannot get to school.

That in itself doesn’t make it extortionate. Just because you can’t afford something doesn’t making the pricing wrong. Yes the timing is unfortunate but who is supposed to pay these costs? Costs which apply to every public transport using individual between 16 and 18. They have to come from somewhere.

Costs which apply to every public transport using individual between 16 and 18

All of whom have more choice, more opportunities to choose where they study, and none of the associated costs of being disabled.

They have to come from somewhere

And so it’s carers and their children who have to bear the brunt?

Might as well say, I’m alright Jack, fuck everyone else.

"Costs which apply to every public transport using individual between 16 and 18."

The OP is being expected to pay more for her child with sen than her child who does not have sen.

Anything that is discretionary provision will be reduced or cut, or contributions required, as education budgets are squeezed.

I remember when budgets were being cut in the early 1990s a large number of SEN teachers were not replaced and some made redundant, back to the minimum required for provision to meet statements, as they then were called.

The comparison was that if councils pay more for staff while denying children with SEN access to school (which is what will happen if OP can’t stump up £300!) while claiming its budget cuts, they can afford it, they’re just choosing not to.
So they should ensure their employees pay out their own pocket to do council work?
E.g. Key worker needs to go to multi agency meeting for child at another school. Key worker should fund that out their own pocket and pay for the privilege of doing their job?
Multi agency meeting shouldn't happen because people have to drive to get there and the council aren't funding travel?

I'm not speculatularly missing the point. I'm pointing out that the system needs reform, but drawing false comparisons doesn't help anything. (And I have a massive issue with a lot of education cuts).

Key worker needs to go to multi agency meeting for child at another school. Key worker should fund that out their own pocket and pay for the privilege of doing their job?
Multi agency meeting shouldn't happen because people have to drive to get there and the council aren't funding travel?

Child with SN can’t access education because of cuts.

It’s funny how as soon as you add a disability or SN into things, society just expects us to just be the brunt of everything isn’t it? Can’t have it affecting anyone else can we?

So you can say you’re against the cuts all you like, your posts are saying different.

The fact is that OP doesn’t have £300 for an upfront payment, therefore her child can not access education.

She’s not whinging about having to pay, she’s explicitly stating she’s not able to.

Sadly I’m alright jack and fuck everyone else is indicative of society today, or LEA announced sweeping budget cuts for 2017/18 and guess what was cut? Respite services and transport for children with disabilities along with summer schemes for children with SN, there was a public consultation which was poorly responded to by non sn families because or course it doesn’t affect them, the following month after the cuts were anounced the front page of the local paper was that the council were building a 5million pound Center to house local artefacts.