If you're planning to have kids, think carefully before living in a rural area

[user1477391263]

About a tenth of all councils are at risk of bankruptcy and the spiralling cost of delivering children to school by taxi has been noted as one of the factors. We've already seen more than one bankruptcy this year. The finances on this are going to get very ugly very quickly over the next few years.

I don't really have any practical advice or suggestions other than "Think carefully before buying a house in a village, and be prepared to have to move house if you child turns out to have challenges that require a special school." Rural bus services will probably mostly evaporate as well - they cost a fortune to run.

Spiralling SEND transport budgets threaten financial sustainability of England’s largest councils, report reveals - County Councils Network

Did you read my subsequent post?

It’s nothing to do with living in a rural area. If your child goes to a specialist school the school is likely to be further away as there are less specialist schools than mainstream. You could live in an urban area and have a child that needs a taxi to be able to access the nearest suitable school.

Ah but the point of this thread is for the OP to covertly put out there that disabled children are a drain on society. It is dressed up as being something else but I can certainly see through it.

You have to read the article knowing the background and narrative that is being peddled at the moment. Parents of DC with SEN are being portrayed as ‘demanding’, ‘unreasonable’ and ‘sharp elbowed’ just for wanting their DC to receive a suitable education and the LA comply with the law.

Providing transport to DC legally entitled to it isn’t optional whether they are rural or not (plenty of SEN DC travel large distances in cities and towns too). Don’t believe everything the CCN say. Their spokesperson and member LAs aren’t exactly known for being supportive of parents of DC with SEN and often act unlawfully. Just look at Roger Gough’s history in Kent.

I can see through it too.

OP has a thing about SEN children.

I’m in a city. We’ve had next to no council services for years, and we have to pay extra for the ones that remain, on top of our £4,000 council tax. All councils are skint, not just rural ones.

You just have to drive them to school surely? Not as environmentally friendly as a bus or walking but loads of people do it.

BTW OP, my sister lives in London and the only suitable place for her SEN child was three hours away......... in the countryside.

So the LA funded it.

Its funny how people complain about the 3 mile limit/2 mile limit for mainstream schools and how the limit should be smaller... but if its for specialist occasion the price is seen as extortionate.

Oh. I see. I regret engaging now.

My issues is not with SEN transport but with the parents of children in my rural area accepting/ insisting on taxis for their non SEN children because they are more than 3 miles away from school and not on a bus route, despite having a car and not working or working from home in a flexible job just because 'they are entitled to it' ... so am I but between me and DH we can just about juggle drop offs and pick ups with both working full time but dropping on the way to walk so kids walk part of the way and using homework club etc... we qualify for taxis but would only accept of there was absolutely no other way to get dc to school....

I live rurally and don't know anyone who doesn't have a car, we all drive our dcs to school/clubs etc.
Surely if you are a non driver you would not choose to live in a rural location in the first place? Regardless of children?
Plus you are talking about a small minority of children, whose parents would probably take into account getting to school, so l am rather bemused by your post

What an unpleasant and frankly very transparent thread.

As an aside, OP, if every single "rural dweller" you know is a WFH worker or a commuter, I would suggest you don't know much about rural communities let alone spent much time in one.

Another note: there are plenty of people who are not actually farmers but have incomes that rely on agriculture and related industries, and who therefore benefit/pretty much need to be situated in rural areas.

No regrets here on moving from a town to a rural area to raise kids.

Yeh, the buses are awful and they will maybe be a bit more dependent on us come secondary, depending if the buses are still funded.

But we left the town to avoid County Lines, knife crime and high ASB despite living in a "nice area".

I get the fundamental message and it's logical. But some of the posts here saying living in villages is incompatible with raising children are ridiculous.

ALL bar one of my friends chose to move rurally after having kids.

PS the public transport is still crap in urban areas and many kids are walking really far in frankly unsafe conditions. I'd say unless you live VERY close to school, ALL parents should expect to be responsible for getting their kids to school. Not just rural parents.

OP lives permanently in Japan.

So why is she bothered about this?

Agree with this ... the County lines activity in our local towns in a rural ish area is horrendous. I'd far rather drive my children around a bit more than expose them to this !!

See also parents complaining that they have been allocated a school that doesn’t work because of the commute when they knew the convenient school was oversubscribed when they moved.

Lots of advantages to bringing children up rurally and sending children to village schools. However, I'm a senco in a largely rural county and at the last senco meeting I went to the LA transport manager spoke to us about how much money they were spending on taxiing children to special schools. He also said they had difficulties finding taxi firms to meet the demand. He even joked that if anyone wanted to give up teaching, they could get themselves licensed as a cabbie, give him a call and he would be able to send plenty of business their way.

I did previously worked in a city and know children were also taxied quite a way to special schools so not exclusively a rural issue.

Genuine question here:

Is it that there are more children with SEN than there has ever been or simply poor funding from central government or a combination of the two?

If there are more children I wonder why

You speaking about children here, so the poster who said you live where you are born is absolutely correct.

As an adult yes you can move... but it isn't that simple is it? I grew up in a city and my sisters lived in a rural area not so remote where there are no shops but it's not the city. You definitely need a car especially car to get around but like anything pros and cons!

It will blow the OP’s mind but some parents receive mileage to take their DC to school.

@werty8765 I suspect there are definitely more children with SEN. Granted things would of not been picked up by nurseries 30 years ago but I don't think its just that I belive SEN is so common now.

There are more children with SEN. Advances in medicine mean an increasing number of premature babies are surviving all the time which is an amazing, wonderful thing but many of these children will go on to have special educational needs.

OP why does this bother you, given that you live in Japan?

I’m always glad not to have grown up beyond a good bus route, without a long journey to school (until sixth form) and near enough the city centre to walk back if needs be.

Where we lived was known as a village by the older locals but was really a suburb on the edge of very small city. We did have a good primary and the secondary schools were within 20 mins bike ride. Sixth forms were ex grammar schools and all in the other side of the city.

I think kids get very bored of being a long way from things. However, as others have said, you’d get transport to special schools if you needed to. Where I live now the secondary school for SEN that does sixth form is actually in a village just outside the town and our neighbour’s daughter gets funded transfer by taxi