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 It turns out that once he finishes y11 the council provided transport is not a statutory thing and will be withdrawn if they go bankrupt or can't find enough money!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.

My DH is retired and he takes DS to school (he is only 13 and has a taxi home, but we find the school journey is a good bonding/discussion time).
Before he retired, we shared it, I however work PT and work quite near the school (not that near home) so I was able to be at work at 9.30 at the latest. I had to WFH on days when DH was in the office and vice versa.

It is shocking and you won't be surprised to hear (if you didn't already know) that only 16% of mothers of children with SEN work at all, only 3% full time.

Oh god so much this.

DS is in Yr 10, his (specialist) school goes right through to 18 but at the end of Yr 11 I'll have to do the school run and what's more, he might not even get PIP once he turns 16 with the changes being brought in to that.

So I'll be tied to a school run (over an hour at each end of the day) but may well have full work commitments on Universal Credit because if DS doesn't qualify for PIP we will lose the disabled child and carer elements. I'll be subject to sanctions if I don't work full time.

Absolutely dreading it.

Who should she "request a PA" from?

PAs are funded via social care. Social care will not (absolutely will not, not just don't like to) fund anything that comes under education. Separate budgets. But education only have a legal responsibility to provide school transport to children aged 5-16.

My DS is 16 and has a taxi but we have to part fund it - about £1400 pa I think. It’s so wrong that there’s a grey area between ages 16-18.

It is a families that care for disabled children issue.. but I think anything that disproportionately effects women is a feminist issue. SEN is a risk factor for marriages breaking down and more mothers are single parents than fathers so I agree that 'care' in general is still something that needs looking at from a feminist angle (even if sometimes the result is neutral) When they change policies, where is the honest equalities impact statement on whether this would impact women more.

I battled my local council with this for ages and they would not budge. I am in the 3% that have only managed to keep working full time due to having an amazing employer.

Completely agree, OP. The whole thing sucks, and women are more directly affected.

It's easy when you think about it, OP...

SEN children? The thread is about the difficulties faced by SEN children and the burden on their families when funding for the transport that makes school attendance possible for them is cut.

Did you not see the OP's calculation of how long it takes on public transport?

Most in special schools can do nothing of the sort.

My son isn't 16yet but we were approved for 8hrs of PA care per week in term time, 15hrs pw in school holidays. We weren't told it excluded transport to and from school, it was discussed that he may use those hours for after school activities, which he would need to be collected from school for.

Not that we've even been able to find an appropriate PA in over a year, another question for my next meeting, thank you.

I'd like to add as a cynic BTW that in 1998 I was part of a LA council research project for children in care
A group of children in care were consulted about the lack of provisions for children/young adults heading for the "gap"and their concerns about what agencies needed to consider for people between 16-18 as they knew, even back then the absolute dereliction of duty and removal of services people suffered during that age gap.
It was very much seen by us as a spartan attitude of "you're on your own now kid"

It seems this attitude is as pervasive as ever across all services designed to support vulnerable people and their families.

It's an issue in rural areas for all kids not just SEN. If you live on a farm or in a small hamlet with no public transport and (in our case) 14 miles from the nearest school/college and carry on with education then your parents have to find a way to get you there and back until you get to 17 and can drive.

You aren't even allowed to carry on getting on the bus from the nearest village like you did from y7-y11.

Obviously NT children can be made to hang around in maccies or whatever until a parent finishes work though which isn't the same for kids with SEN.

The morning run, I could probably manage, it's the 3.15 pick up which would screw everything up.

Yes we could pay for a taxi or employ a nanny and get them to collect him I guess but why should we have to pay thousands of pounds a year for the next 2 years because we are unfortunate enough to have a disabled child.

His dad is heavily involved and has a flexible and well paid job, but not flexible enough to have 2 hours off in the middle of the day to do a school run. Mine is basically pocket money because one of us had to drop their career progression when he was diagnosed at 3 months old and it made more sense for it to be me, although I have kept working part time 3 days a week. I always hoped I would go full time once he was 18 but I think that is probably unrealistic.

I understand that people don't think this is a feminist issue but it really is,because caring is not valued in the same way as working in a job is, and it is a fact that it is still the case that more women spend time doing caring roles than men do.

I am obviously not saying that men in caring roles don't get the same shit we do as obviously they do, just that more women than men are in that situation .

If caring was seen as a "proper job" and was reimbursed as such, I would have choices and options that are not available to me. For example, maybe my husband could give up work and be the carer because he would be paid enough for the family to live on that and I could go back to work full time for crap wages and work my way up.

While there isn’t a statutory duty to provide transport to sixth form age pupils, if LAs refuse to provide transport, it is still possible to successfully challenge the decision, particularly if a lack of transport would prevent DC attending the placement (after all the LA is still responsible for the provision in the EHCP) or their decision is unreasonable.

SENTAS, who @Perzival linked to, can help with this.

It is also worth checking the LA’s post 16 transport policy is actually lawful. Some aren’t.

I think there are some good Facebook groups for sen transport issues. I suggest you join them for advice.

My daughter was funded to go to a sen sixth form by taxi. But I'm not in Birmingham

Anyway, have you got a copy of the Gov document on post 16 travel? https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c48534c40f0b616fba5cb6a/Post16_transport_guidance.pdf

Is there any way he could get there independently if he had travel training? Not knowing his needs at all so sorry if this is a bloody stupid question. But my DD got travel training in yr 11 so when she went to local (shit) FE college taking the bus independently was possible. And yes, it is a feminist issue because mothers are the default carers. Be angry both for women and for disabled teenagers - it truly f*ing sucks.

Did you read the OP?

How much is the taxi?
State education only provides transport for children up to the end of Y11 when your local school is more than 3 miles away because at KS5 young people can be in education or training. They don’t have to go to school. Obviously most children don’t need a special needs school, so I sympathise, but I don’t think that’s going to change, just like I don’t think university fees will be reversed.

only provides transport for children up to the end of Y11 when your local school is more than 3 miles away

This isn’t correct. The statutory walking distance is irrelevant when the child cannot reasonably be expected to walk to school because of their SEN, disability or medical condition.

The fact some young people don’t remain in a school setting post 16 doesn’t mean OP wouldn’t be able to secure transport.

My LA basically provides transport post 16 if you have an ehc. But the next door LA provides money for the yp or parent to sort sth out for themselves as part of the independence process ( though you can appeal for transport).

Anyway, both these local authorities are not leaving yp and their families in the lurch so I don't understand why the OP is in this situation

Because you are the parents and so nothing wrong with you pay. Same questions can be asked, why others have to pick up the bill when you have a disabled child, when you can afford.

so I don't understand why the OP is in this situation

Because some LAs are trying to save money and in doing so are acting, or proposing to act, unlawfully or spreading misinformation (as they often do).

Do you received DLA for your son ?
if not I suggest you look into securing this benefit for him as it also has a mobility component.
Currently the low rate mobility is £29.30 pw
and high rate is £77.05 pw .
I know it’s not a fortune but it might help on the 3 days a week you’re unable to take him