Changes to travel arrangements for children with S.E.N. ...

[GossipWitch]

A friend and I went to our local autism drop in centre this week to find that a council official was there and was telling us about the proposed changes for our children and their transport to their special needs schools.

Just so that you understand what I'm writing about there is a link here.

The government are trying to put these measurements in place across the country, you just have to google it and find out for yourself.

I personally feel that this is discrimination against the disabled children and young people of this country and I don't think this is fair to us or our children at all.

This could also have a huge knock on effect to other organisations like the social services etc. Have a read through and tell me if you agree please.

It isnt exactly the same. Round here the secondarys and primarys have staggered start and end times plus secondary pupils tend to get themselves to school.

Plus the SNS school is much further away than any mainstream school I would have sent them to.

There are five within a 5/10 minute walk of my house. I wouldnt have chosen one that required a bus or car drive to get there. AND by year six my children walk themselves to school in preperation for secondary.

Getting the kids to different schools wouldnt be an issue for me at all if DS2 didnt have SN and wasnt at a SNS.

Or if OH didnt have a disability that made it impossible for him to do a school run.

9am for my son's school. Late mark if they are not on time.

Princess
In my area in 7 years I have not been able to find one childminder or school club and my dd will never be able to set foot out of the door independantly, and we also have no family within a 60 mile radius plus ss start time is the same as mainstream so am hopeing that transport criteria will take this into account.

NT children at different schools is not always the choice of the parents.

I was at a different school from my brothers due to overcrowding. it happens. to a lot of people.

SN schools do tend to be further away - but AFAIK, no one is suggesting that a child with a journey of over 3 miles (secondary) or 2 miles (primary) will have transport removed (these distances are already used in my county, btw). so that negates a lot of the arguments here.

in the case of not being able to get a child into the car safely - I would hope that the help you would be given would be more than transport to school (which essentially is not much help at all - after all, it is the same journey being made), which would look at how to deal with travelling safely. having trouble getting a child into a car is not (however hard a problem it is, and believe me I do know how hard it can be) a reason for getting transport.

maybe funding after school clubs for NT siblings would be a way to go for councils (again, on a needs basis, not as standard) - would be cheaper than providing transport in many instances.

When my DS started school I was a bit about all the kids getting transport just because they went to a SNS. It seemed to mark them out as different and was a bit medical modelish.

But out of all the children who go to his school there are probably only a tiny amount with no good, practical reason why they need to get the bus.

Why on earth else would we hang about on cold, wet street corners waiting for them to be picked up and dropped off?

It would be so much easier if I could take him in the car and pick him up. But I cant. Its not going to get any easier as he gets older.

He will be in that school when he is in secondary. His condition isnt going to change and the school isnt going to get any further away. It seems odd that he will not then be eligible for transport.

But we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Everything is so bloody insecure now I dont count on anything tbh.

Local authorities are using the argument that they want sen transport to be equal and operate with the same policy as mainstream transport, unless they find a way for my autistic learning disabled child to operate the same as a NT child then I,m afraid it just won,t work.

I think I must be missing something.

I really cannot see how getting transport is the key that might solve 'how to get a resisting child into a car'

rosie: it does sound as though your situation would be one where an exception was made. having re-read the link int he OP, the charges that might possibly be introduced are for transporting children to SN nurseries, not to school; there is a paragraph acknowledging potential issues with independent mobility (so ASD is covered, imo); and the distance criteria that are often set around the country already are laid out, thus covering the 'SN miles in the opposite direction' scenario.

as an aside, my parents had no choice - the overcrowded school was the only mixed school. I ended up at a girls school. would have been a bit hard to move my brothers to be with me...

and no, the fact that parents of only NT children sometimes (quite often, ime) struggle with getting children to different schools at different times is not a reason to remove transport. but it is a reason to look at the big picture and say 'this is not a problem unique to families with children with SN. maybe we are not tackling this in the right manner'

Princess. For us it isn,t an issue of cost we could just about afford to pay for transport and would be happy to do so if this was introduced but it isn,t even on the table. having been to the consultation meeting and spoken to the councillors and transport people autism, behaviour and learning difficulties aren,t included in their distance exclusion policy as it stands only hearing sight and physical disability is included.

tbh, all getting transport would do is shift the problem to be someone else's - your ds2 would still scream unexpectedly. he would still push and pull and scratch, just not his brothers.

as I said earlier, it sounds as though you need some help, but not sure that transport (and yes, I know you are not applying) is the solution. the behaviours need unpicking - and if this can be done in order to enable school transport, then it can be done for a private car too.

rosie - obviously you have attended the meetings and I have not. but I would be using the wording given on their own website - which allows for if a disability restricts independent mobility, without specifying the disability or how it manifests.

Justa becuase you are a good mum!

Since we started to get transport (over 3m distance anyway) the boys have started to go school OK Why? no idea; often with kids like mine (ASD) breaking a routine can have that effect. But it's not 2 different schools with us; we have ds1 at a SN COmp Base 30+ minutes away; ds2 in a MS primary; ds3 in a SN Primary base 25 mins in opposite direction to ds1's and ds4 at local MS Nursery but due to starts school in September at yet another place. Had the boys not had the Sn they'd all be at the local under subscribed primary and local feeder comp. Instead we have the 'Hell in a handcart' approach to education!

'the behaviours need unpicking - and if this can be done in order to enable school transport, then it can be done for a private car too.

Yes over a long time, potentially years

Whilst ds3's school refusal took one morning to sort without having to deal with separating from me at the school gate. OK so someone else could have walked him in (this was in local) but that would involve SSD input which I have been told will never, ever happen for us as we are not about to kill the children.

I don't normally post in this topic anymore but had to as this thread has annoyed me so much.
the assumption that because someone has a motibility car they should be transporting their child is well wrong.
my dd goes to the nearest suitable 16 plus unit(and before that school) and it is over 10 miles away,
when she was in nursery years ago I used to have to take her and pick her up(before we had a motibility car as back then they had to be 5) and it took over an hour each time, add in the cost of diesel and it would be plain unaffordable in money and time.
I am shocked by the lack of understanding in what is supposed to be a cosy supportive topic, to other people situations,
life with a disabled child is hard enough, thinks like school transport just make it a bit easier.
questioning other posters as to why they can't take their severely disabled child to school themselves is not only crass it is bloody nasty.
no wonder so many posters are looking for support else where.

What sevenfold said

Yes i've noticed this creeping in to SN MN

The whole point of the set-aside nature of this section was to keep a supportive forum, SN posts are able to be posted in AIBU (good luck there...) if a political debate is wanted, SN is support. IMO anyway. But I was around when the set aside thing was done so it's a valid O.

And once upon a time this board was not about SN top trumps either. It was a place where all opinions were welcome. not just ones that fit with the current political statements, or the backlash against perceived cuts that probably won't happen as they are feared.

But if the only opinions required are ones which agree that councils are always wrong, and parents of children with SN are always right, regardless of the situation, well this is clearly not the place to come for advice and an alternative point of view.

I don't do Sn top trumps.

I call unsupportive what it is, is all.

But anything political can gop elsewhree, that's not saying none of it- just don't come here and judge other people when there are a hundred other palces you can do it within the board.

PS I quite like my council, they do their best.

really?

I've noticed quite a lot of:

'oh, well that's alright for you then'
'but that wouldn't work for me because of xyz '
etc.

the whole thread is political, peachy - it is about a political proposition.

the fact remains that the council proposal will not actually mean cuts under most of the situations that have been outlined on this thread - a fact that has been pointed out,but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good old political rant.

and there has been no judgement from me.

we dont have a mobility car for DS and will never have one.
He gets low rate mobility so that will go.

I have a car and I could drive him. IF he didnt have siblings.

This is not going to change. Why should he be late for school everyday because he goes to a SNS? His edcuation is just as important as his brothers.

It would be quicker and easier for me to drive him IF he didnt have siblings. There are children on his bus whose parents dont have a car and there is no public transport that goes to the school.

What on earth are they supposed to do? I think its very unlikely they would chose to send their child to a school that was far away and had no public transport stopping near by. Why would anyone do that?

So it IS different for children with SN.

If a parent of a child without SN decided to pick a school that they had no way of getting to and then complained that they couldnt get there I would think them daft.

But a family chosing an inaccessible school because it is the only one in the area that is able to meet their child's needs is hardly in the same position.