To ask for my child to be put in a different taxi

[Odearr]

My 11 year old ds goes to a sen school, mainly the needs of the children are semh -he had autism and adhd.
he loves school. Feels safe, everything there is good.
however, my son has been out in a taxi with 3 other children from the same school who are older than him (they are year 9) and this past week he has been threatened with being strangled, put in a headlock, had his phone taken and they kept calling me telling me "I'm f**king your son" "we're beating you're son up"
and today came home with a pumpkin he'd carved at school smashed up and the other child had thrown it at him, put his phone inside it, put pumpkin bits all in his hair and over his clothes.

No way is he getting in that taxi tomorrow, and I have emailed the council transport team and tried to contact the school but waiting on a call back.

AIBU do insist that this transport isn't appropriate or safe and they he's given alternative transport ? I know the la are going to be hard to convince because it will cost
more money, but he can hardly be expected to be subjected to this every day

It really ought to be your son and the boy up front who go to school and the other two who caused the problem have to secure alternative transport. That’s how I’d approach it and then the extra funding is their issue not yours.

You need to tell them this is a failure in their duty of care and it must be rectified.

It's important to talk about their duty of care and ask them about the risk assessments and why this is being allowed to continue.

I agree. The school needs to deal with the bullying.

Stop being so nasty. What are you doing?

No you didn't pay £60 a day.

Could you really afford to pay £300 a week or £1200 a month. I know I couldn’t.
You are just being a twat!

I’ve worked at three special schools and have never seen transport being used without a chaperone. Completely unacceptable and needs raising with the school and LEA. Most of our students go on minibuses or at least 7 seaters so there is always space for a chaperone. Hope your DC is ok.

There is rarely a chaperone these days.

@Odearr

Ring SEN transport at the LA , report this. follow up with a factual email. Give them 24 hours to make contact with you. Escalate this urgently if needed.

Don't send him in until they have sorted this. Don't be fobbed off, they will be very persuasive. Say it's not safe and his mental health is suffering.

Let the provision/ school know.

The LA are responsible for sourcing and providing a safe means of transport to and from SEN education.

They can give you a generous transport allowance until they can get a new taxi in place.

They won't tell you this. You can do it month by month and stop at any time should this be an option until they can get tenders out to new taxis.

Not to be confused with direct payment. This means they relinquish all responsibility for transporting your child.

This is the LA's legal responsibility.

Can you tell I've been here before?

Who are the 3% who think OP is unreasonable?! Crazy. Hope you get it sorted OP, it’s a serious safeguarding issue from what you’ve said here

OP I have known trouble makers removed from SEN transport for bad behaviour. Just keep complaining.

If it was to ensure my children never missed out then yes I paid it!!
Also it wasn’t that much!!

I would pay anything to ensure my children didn’t miss out!
It also wasn’t that much!,!

DD works in a similar educational setting. There are no escorts in the taxis.

For people who want them to magic up a chaperone is this because you know this legally should happen or is it another random MN that people just say without having any idea

Same with demanding a mythical other taxi?

Pipe down Brenda

@Odearr Just go down the safeguarding route at achool and report to the police today too. I might keep your son off school today and say that until they can confirm the safety measures are in place you can't send him in

I wonder if the LA responded so quickly because the driver had already reported it, so they were already looking into solutions. Dishing to the parents and installing a camera so quickly is a good response from them, but the school also need to do something. Speak to the safeguarding lead.

You dont have a child in a special school do you ?
It's not quite as simple as taking them yourself, when my boys were at primary school ,one in mainstream one in special, hoe would I have got them both ti school on time, both schools being several miles apart ?

Small in name, small in brain.

I hope this gets sorted OP. It’s not acceptable. Good luck

You need to complain every time there is an incident. Ask the school to complain. Ask the taxi driver to complain. It all adds up and they then can't ignore it.

OP could you ask a school Mum to drop your other child or find a childminder for an hour before school so you can do the school run? Maybe not a long term solution but might help in the interim.

The OP already explained that the school isn't close, she doesnt drive and she has another child who attends a different school which starts at the same time. SEN schools aren't always within easy reach, that's one of the reasons why the taxi is available in the first place.

£300 a week is a lot to pay, especially as an unexpected expense.

My ds didn't have a chaperone. 2 kids in his taxi including him.

They managed not to fight!

A chaperone would have been an unnecessary cost.