To refuse school transport on safeguarding grounds

[Pistachiopikachu]

My child's taxi driver has recently told him he thinks its ok to use racial slurs.

He's made various derogatory comments about woman drivers.

Aplauded the use of the England flags being hung and painted.

When its just my child on the route he will sometimes take a longer route home. This is apparently to avoid traffic, that hasn't shown up when I've checked the route myself when I check to see where he is as I am never notified if they are running late.

This driver swears when having to deal with situations with the children and at other drivers.

My child gets school transport to specialist SEN school.
This is provided by a taxi firm contracted by the council. He attends the closest school that is able to meet his need.
There are two children on the route and no assistant as it has been deemed they do not need one.

AIBU to refuse to allow my child to travel and tell the council they need to provide an alternative?

I dunno op - i'd complain about his comments and the route and then see what happens

Threatening not to send him in could really backfire imo and you want your relationship to be preserved x

Well it is VE day today.

Some people do put their flags up for a reason. My great uncle has put his out, as he does on St Georges day, on his flagpole. He's lived in that house all his married life (over 50 years) and he's always done it. I don't think he's trying to signal anything except his own patriotism.

You can contact school transport and as pp said they should provide a new driver immediately- it is a company that tenders for the job and the LA pay for it. They need to book a different driver/ vehicle. Write down clearly and with dates, number of occasions and put in the complaint. Inform the school you are doing this. Where I worked the collecting adults Wouk also report if they found a driver to be inappropriate in any way.

Much better to report it OP, rather than just stop using it. They will look into it for you.

Maybe start by asking for any footage from the drivers internal camera under GDPR.

I mean there may well be a taxi driver who doesn't have an internal dashcam. But now round our way ....

Take your child to school yourself if you don’t like the transport provided.

I work at a SEN school and have very easily changed drivers due to much less. Has your child reported any concerns to the school? We always report to the company who run the transport as opposed to the council as that's down to the company to do. If they don't respond to you, ask the school to help. If that doesn't work, speak to sen transport. Drivers are paid very well for school runs so there will be drivers waiting in the wings to have that run

@AlcoholicAntibiotic are you having a laugh?! This driver has said loads of inappropriate things, sworn and taken the child alone on a longer, unexpected route. If you'd be ok with that for your kids then I'm sorry for your kids.
There are lots of decent drivers out there and the op's child deserves better.
My son has been getting a taxi home for the past couple of weeks as I've had to leave work early to collect him since September, was always late anyway, he was the last kid and his teacher had to wait with him, plus it was getting more and more difficult at work. It's not always possible to take your child to school. Mainstream kids get the bus or train - if the driver was swearing and shouting racist, sexist crap and taking different routes with a lone traveller there'd be trouble...why should it be ok in this situation?!

You know sara sharifs father was a taxi driver for sen children despite police already having reports against him for violence.

Its ok to raise safeguarding concerns if you believe you have one

Haha, no - OP’s child is legally entitled to this transport whether you like it or not. And equally entitled to receive said service without being subjected to the driver’s pig ignorant opinions.

OP report all of the driver’s comments in as much detail as you can. Your child should be offered an alternative, and this thick twat shouldn’t be working with children.

No, we raised concerns about two different children who my DS has shared a taxi with, they were glad we'd flagged it and changed who he's transported with.
One had told DS he has a gun and one kept trying to tickle him. Both were older teenage boys and DS was preteen at the time.

so you haven’t already complained @Pistachiopikachu ?!