To feel hopeless about school transport

[AmericasfavoritefightingFrenchman]

I’m thinking mostly about transport for pupils with disabilities- though I recognise the provision is poor all around. The fact that some counties refuse to transport the littlest reception children on the grounds that school is not compulsory, for instance, is just mean, stingy accounting at the expense of tiny children.

I’m thinking about the unreliability, about the sudden calls in the morning to say ‘no transport today’ which could leave a child stuck at home. And these are children who really can’t afford to miss a day at school, or who have a breakdown at the prospect of missing a day.

I’m thinking about the massive pressure to not be a minute late for meeting transport, applied to kids who actually deserve a medal for facing up to school at all, or to kids who have already gone through three changes of clothes and two showers trying to get ready for a 7am pick up.

Im thinking about kids spending 3-4 hours a day on transport just to get to and from school.

I’m thinking about the contracts that say that involuntary behaviour, if deemed unacceptable, is cause to terminate transport arrangements. Honestly that’s not very different from saying if a baby’s crying is distressing you’ll stop feeding it.

Sigh.

SEN provision is a fucking joke. One friend's autistic son was placed in a school out of county and so far away that he had to board Monday-Friday.

@FloweryName I wanted to come back and reply to your points.

I do agree with the general principle of timeliness, and I do have concern for the DC who would struggle with waiting, either for physical reasons or because they are fixated on precise timings. However, I think the kind of flexibility I would like is pretty minimal and reciprocal e.g. if you are given a pick up time of 7:45 to 7:55 and the taxi might arrive anywhere in that window, it should be equally acceptable for the child to be ready anywhere in that window. Most human drivers I've dealt with have kept that sort of rule in practice and I don't think that would lead to insurmountable waiting beyond that intrinsic in using a taxi for the DC who struggle with waiting.

Our experience was that we were given an 8:00am pick up time for a school 30 minutes' drive away in morning traffic that opened at 9:00am. So a 30 minute cushion of extra time and no DC to pick up after us. Still we were threatened quite nastily with being left if took more than 2 minutes for DC to get settled in the car after it arrived. What harm could it have done if it took 12 extra minutes as a one-off? Isn't that part of what the cushion is for?

As much as some DC struggle with waiting others really struggle with time keeping and organisation as part of their disability and I'm not sure why it's fairer to meet the needs of those who struggle to wait over and above those who struggle to be ready?

I agree that it is necessary for the driver and passangers to be safe, but the principle of penalising involuntary behaviour is really troubling to me. If the behaviour is truly involuntary the penalty has no reforming or preventative purpose for the DC concerned. Once a DC was removed from our route for spitting as an involuntary tick. Fair? Spitting is disgusting. But last week, a tradesman appeared to spit twice in my home. When challenged - 'did you just spit?' - he replied 'No. I have Tourettes. It's involuntary.' He was quite offended that I considered it spitting and quite certain that it was not a problem because it was related to a disability. Why should it be ok in his case, but not for the DC? Just because the DC is non-verbal and unable to defend their actions?

It's a good point about writing things down. Unfortunately ours 'didn't realise the email required a response' or they have 'discussed the issue with the chaperone for the chaperone to report back' and nothing gets done, which is why I always seem to end up on the phone. I'm realising that they really are totally rubbish! I think their policy is to just wear you down and/or run out the clock for the term/school year.

I hear what you're saying about more complex needs and the difficulties there.

I’m going to hide this thread now. It reminds me why the sn topic became opt in .
hope all the sn parents get the help they deserve

Some LA's provide decent school transport. My local one does. You see all the minibuses whizzing around in the morning and evening taking all the children to school and back.

I'm a single parent, and have one DC in mainstream, and another in special school due to their additional needs. Both DC need to be at school at 9am, and the schools are 7 miles apart.

DC at the special school gets the school transport, which is a bus that picks up at a specific point a minute away from our house where a number of other DC also get on. The bus then does 2 more pickups before getting to the school.

Sounds like we're fortunate in that in the 2 years since DC has been at the school and taking school transport, the bus has not arrived on just 2 occasions (due to breakdown). Notice was very last minute, about 15 minutes before pickup.

It must be so variable county by county. All of the kids in the next village along to us (less than 3 miles) get access to a minibus service that collects and drops door to door. It’s really well organised- generally same drivers every time and a teacher unloads/loads them on. Vulnerable children shouldn’t be having to deal with long journeys with dubious drivers - they deserve better than that. But it just feels like the whole sector is massively underfunded now and the cuts are causing so many problems. It just feels like education and in particular sen provision needs a huge overhaul and a ton of money pumping in.

My 6 year old autistic son’s SEN Transport has been awful this term. He was moved from his previous route on a minibus with a lovely driver and assistant into a mini cab. We’ve had 2 different drivers so far, 2 different assistants, one day the cab turned up with no assistant. The main assistant tried to put DS in the front passenger seat with no car seat. Pick up times have been anywhere between 7:40 and 9:00. School is a 40 min drive away, and starts at 9:00. I have to leave to take my other son to school at 8:30.
One afternoon they were 50 mins late collecting my son from school.
On 3 occasions now, my son has refused to get into the cab and had a meltdown. He is non-verbal, so he can’t tell me what the problem is. Yet LA and transport company don’t seem to think this is an issue and are not responding to my emails.

I’m so sorry, That is completely awful. Much sympathy.

Fingers crossed my sons transport is quite settled at the moment ,but they change drivers and PA,s every year and its very hit and miss wether you get a good PA or not we have had some fabulous ones and some bloody hopeless ones most are mediocre
My oldest son is at college now so independent but I remember the days of ,transport being late and then that meant my oldest son was late for school too nightmare.

You need to contact the transport department and the SEN department and point out that this is unlawful and directly in breach of statutory guidance. If possible, give them a full day-by-day breakdown of what has been going on. Ask them to respond to you within a week with their detailed plans for ensuring that they do comply with the law by having a reliable and safe transport arrangement in place, failing which you will have to consider judicial review action to protect your son's rights.

Also point out to the SEN department that if, as seems likely, this failure means that your son can no longer get to school, they will be in breach of their duty to ensure that he receives full time education and special educational provision, and they too will be potentially in the firing line for judicial review.

https://sossen.org.uk/whats-judicial-review/

@AmericasfavoritefightingFrenchman

I think the kind of flexibility I would like is pretty minimal and reciprocal e.g. if you are given a pick up time of 7:45 to 7:55 and the taxi might arrive anywhere in that window, it should be equally acceptable for the child to be ready anywhere in that window.

In theory that should be a reasonable expectation, but throw in two or three other children with varying disabilities and levels of tolerance for waiting and that could be adding 30 minutes to a journey that is already too long.

I agree that it is necessary for the driver and passangers to be safe, but the principle of penalising involuntary behaviour is really troubling to me. If the behaviour is truly involuntary the penalty has no reforming or preventative purpose for the DC concerned. Once a DC was removed from our route for spitting as an involuntary tick. Fair?

I don’t think there is a principle of penalising involuntary behaviour, especially not for the purpose of reform. Transport providers aren’t there to hand out punishments for any reason. You say you agree that it is necessary for the others to be safe but sadly sometimes, removing a child from a transport arrangement is the only way to achieve that. Hopefully in most cases it would only be temporary. Children can involuntary do all sorts of things that are harmful to other people and in a special school environment, staff can mostly cope with it. It’s not the same in a moving vehicle because the risks become so much higher.

In your example of spitting I’d guess it would have to be assessed on an individual basis. A child spitting into their own fingers or down their chin can be cleaned quickly and easily without affecting anyone so of course it wouldn’t be fair to remove their transport. A child going through a behavioural issue that caused them to deliberately spit at people could be reasonably expected to have a different transport arrangement at the same time as being given support to redirect the behaviour.

It’s often a very difficult minefield and like many things, it all comes down to money. All of the issues that arise with getting children with disabilities to the schools they need to be at could be solved with enough money.

Some of the issues that could arise are solved by the children’s escorts/supervisors. A few of them are truly wonderful and they make all the difference to a child’s day.

In ds2's case, a behavioural issue was caused by the escort shouting at him. Thank goodness for his echolalia so we soon realised why he was acting up at home.

Wow, I didn't realise there were people out there who resented my daughter being given transport to get to school. Yet it seems there are quite a few.
I live next to a school. Literally right next door. But they wouldn't take my child. Neither would the special school in the neighbouring town. Therefore she travels 40 minutes away to get to the only school that could accept her. I would love, LOVE for the school right next to me to have the resources to educate her along with her siblings, but they don't. So she has to travel on this bus while I take her siblings to school. This is not a lifestyle choice ffs.

Not a decision the LA want to make either. Budgets to LA’s are being slashed year on year by the Tory gov.

The system is broken. Too few special school places. Nothing local. Increasingly high needs pupils. LA are responsible for educating a child. LA’s can not open new schools, only Academy trusts can. Budgets are not enough to provide specialist schools ( so Academy trusts cannot take the risk). Existing special school budget are in massive deficit. ( near to £900,000) per school in my LA) and rising.
Tribunals find in favour of the SEND child. LA has to fund a place - sometimes in excess of £120,000 per year, per child, plus travel.

Bus companies and taxi companies are seeing all costs rising. Passed on to the LA. Such companies struggle to recruit. We've had bus companies go bust, leaving massive gaps in transport.

Adults are unwilling to work as transport escorts, hours aren't great - an hour each end of everyday.
My Eastern European travel escorts left due to Brexit. The LA is bringing in staff from India, who are willing to commit to the working hours.

Absolute mess by central government. My LA has another £5.5 million to save in Children’s Services alone, this year, AGAIN.

Please don't blame LA’s.

@SahliJ believe me I am not blaming LAs. It’s a ridiculous system that allows half of the high needs budget to be spent on transport not education and other support.

Thanks so much for your advice @Passepartoute, I’ve emailed the SEN Transport dept and outlined what you’ve said. I’ve also contacted my MP about the lack of reply from the LA on the matter. Finger crossed something happens now!

Good luck, OP, I hope that works!