Mums of disabled teenagers expected to give up work to do school run

[Geneticsbunny]

I have a disabled teenager who is currently at a special needs school and has a council provided taxi to get there. It turns out that once he finishes y11 the council provided transport is not a statutory thing and will be withdrawn if they go bankrupt or can't find enough money! They are currently considering dropping the service.

I have looked and there is no way for him to get there on public transport (5 bus changes -1.5hrs) or walk (2hrs 34mins), and so I will have to give up work to drive him to and from school every day.

This is obviously a feminist issue because most main carers are female and it is them who will be leaving he workforce to deal with this.

I am so angry that we are being fucked over again when I just want to be able to do a relatively normal thing like have an actual job.

I am not sure I actually have a question, I just wanted somewhere to rant where people would understand how sexist this shit is.

I am so sorry.

This all stems from the conservatives cutting council budgets and forcing adult social care to be a local authority issue, as opposed to a national issue.

Weirdly once he is 18 it is different and the issue disappears i.e transport is an adult social care/education issue and we part fund and they part fund.
It's just this stupid 16-18 bit.

I don't drive. What would happen in this situation?
I remember arguing in my son's EHCP application for a certain school that he needed to be able to travel independently to school and the school I wanted was on our doorstep. The lawyer who helped me was attempting to argue that we could go to Tribunal to secure a taxi for a different more expensive school further away
as it was the best school was on our doorstep and he went there but I would never have been able to drive him regardless of work as I didn't drive in the first place

I'm not sure how they can force you to drive him or force him to travel for 1.5 hours? Are they suggesting a different school nearer?

Could you move house nearer to the school?

When 16 to 18 education was not compulsory, they may have had a point, but it is, so that's very poor.

Will there be other parents at the school who will be affected by this? If so, would a taxi share or minibus where the cost is shared feasible?

Could you request a PA for school term times? They could do drop offs and pick ups and if he has after school activities they could support him with that and drop offs afterwards.

This is government guidance for England. You need the council policy and appeal process.

Overall I agree with PP that this is due to cutting council funding while Send and social care needs that are statutory have increased. P

Anecdotally I know plenty of men who drove their children to and from school, and special school because of difficulties with public transport, length of time, children not being able to go independently for safety reasons bullying etc. I don't think it's entirely a feminist issue anymore than childcare should be an entirely feminist issue. It's a families caring for children issue.

You need to contact sentas. They will be able to advise on the best way to proceed. The la can't have a blanket policy on this and there are situations where the LA have to continue to provide it or as a minimum consider the situation.

https://sentas.co.uk/

I'm sorry you're facing this, would you actually have to give up work though?
Fund a taxi yourself?
Tall to your boss about a change of working hours to accommodate the school run?
Can you car share with another parent if your area who's child goes to the same school?
Appreciate none of these might be possible for you, but I think it's extremely rare that parents have to give up work just to do the school run.

What is true is that parents with SEN children and teenagers are unable to use wrap around care such as breakfast and after school clubs which in turn affects their working hours. This is true of people whose children are not picked up and dropped off by taxis or school transport, presumably earlier and later than school starts or ends.
And it is also true that parents who have to take their children to assessments and appointments or cope with school refusal are not able to work "normally" either.

@Nettleskeins no idea. Although I think there will be some sort of right to appeal maybe? They have done it in Birmingham so maybe someone from there might know?

@murasaki exactly. That is my point.

There are no other schools nearer. Everywhere nearer refused to accept him.

@ManHereSorry no, I can't move house, it would have an unfair impact on me , my husband and my other two kids who are happy and in nice schools with local friends that they can walk to see

@Deafnotdumb there is one parent nearby so we could maybe share but we would also need to employ 2 taxi escorts to supervise the kids and I suspect the combination of this would be extortionate. An Uber to the school would be about £15 each way, so that's already £5700 without the escort.

I would not be able to get into work till 10 and would them have to leave at 2.30 and then only be free again at 4. I know it's not impossible but my current job wouldn't allow me to do that and I can't think of many jobs which would.

Interesting. What did they do for work or did they not work because of the school run?

Why on earth would you quit your job instead of paying for him to get there? Presumably you earn more than £30 a day so it’s not remotely logical to quit.
You and your husband can flex your jobs to cover half the drop offs or collections and the other half can be a taxi.

What a nightmare.
Our council offers SN transport on application but you pay around £1k plus per year (amount depending on distance).
Really shouldn’t be a lottery as to whether you can apply or not.

Are his needs too great for other local collages or apprenticeships instead of staying on for 6th form ?

GeneticsBunny men in this case were carers for disabled family member (so available) or self employed, or....always did the school run. But we were non drivers so neither of us male or female would have driven, work or not

@Nettleskeinsand we're labelled lazy and scrounging as a result of this

Why aren’t you considering how your husband /child’s father can help?

yes this sort of thing disproportionately affects women, so why are we still letting men off?

why is it you automatically giving up work? Have your husband cut some hours or put in a flexible working request.

Don’t just accept it because you’re female.

Giving up work entirely seems extreme, could you not explain to your employer for the next 12 months ( or whatever it is until he is 18) you may have to re jig your hours to allow you to do the school run?

Millions of parents (both men and women) of kids in mainstream school have to do this in order to facilitate school hours.

in my experience social workers like to try their luck on this one to see how many parents or carers will move around their work hours etc to do the school transport therefore saving the council money.
as you have said nothing has been decided yet. If and when they ask you to transport your young adult just say you are unavailable to do that. Try not to get caught up in why you are unavailable, just say you are able to do this.

At 16 though? Most that age are able to get themselves to and from school

The majority of teenagers at my sons school go home via transport with PAs aboard only 2 come by public bus (one in a wheelchair ) with a parent and a handful walk a small distance all with parents needed to supervise and assist.

Most 16yr olds with no SEN will be able to get home themselves, we're not talking about those children though.

Giving up work seems a bit of an overreaction. However, I can see the difficult situation that you're in, and you're right that it isn't fair. Have you tried approaching your local MP about the issue? Might be worth a try...