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Original poster

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

182 replies

GossipWitch · 06/10/2011 23:17

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.

OP posts:
BakeliteBelle · 09/10/2011 20:24

Princess, do you have a disabled child? That isn't an accusing sort of question by the way, just want to know as this has been a debate between parents of SN children so far and I couldn't work out whether you have direct experience of disability or not.

If you do, fair enough, but if you don't, I don't think for one minute you can know the complexity of how transport might impact on this population.

Peachy · 09/10/2011 20:46

If it's political it should be elsewhere then imo

And that would not work for me is not what is meant by SN top trumps. Sometimes things don't work, that's reality. It's not a top trump to say that.

Bakelite she said earlier on that she knows about geting kids into cars whilst screaming so assume she does have an SN child yes.

MrsDV what do you man the LR mobility will go?

Sevenfold · 09/10/2011 20:57

"And once upon a time this board was not about SN top trumps either.

wtf, did someone really post that on the sn topic, or did i dream it.
can people not post if they have a severely disabled child now, or do they have to keep quiet.

Peachy · 09/10/2011 20:58

Nor if we have multiples seven.

Ho hum, will post where I want.

rosie39forever · 09/10/2011 21:08

I don't think this is political all councils are having to make cuts regardless of what parties they are from, they have no choice but to save money, what they do have a choice of is not to cut from the most vulnerable members of society, when there are other options.

Marne · 09/10/2011 21:20

At the moment both of my dd's go to the same school but its possible some time in the future dd2 will have to go to SN school which is 6 miles (2 villages away), i will not be able to take her as i will be busy taking dd1 to the local school so she would need to go by bus or taxi, if this is cut then it would meen one of them being late for school and then being picked up early. If you have one child and you are able to drive them to school then fair enough but what if you have 2 or 3 children who need to be at another school at the same time? then this is not fair.

Some of our children have to go to school more than 5 miles away because the local schools will not or can not cope with their sn's or disabilty so its not through choice that we send out kids to schools outside the catchment area's, we have no choice.

Tiggles · 09/10/2011 21:24

Are our schools in Wales unusual that they have to provide an (often free) breakfast club? - I drop DS1&2 to theirs and then take DS3 on to his nursery.

Tiggles · 09/10/2011 21:25

Oops previous comment as in that parents with children at two different schools could make use of the breakfast club for one of their children, just like parents with NT children at different schools presumably have to.

Peachy · 09/10/2011 21:25

littlemiss no they don't, ours does not and we are in S E Wales

Peachy · 09/10/2011 21:26

indeed none of ours, all 4 of them!

cory · 09/10/2011 21:28

Princess, if you have LEA transport for a child with behavioural difficulties there will also be an escort= one person to drive and one person to keep an eye on the child. That is a different situation to a parent taking her child to school in her own car. Of course, the council could solve such a situation by sending an escort out to the house of every such child in the morning to travel in the parent's car, but that would hardly be more efficient or constitute any kind of saving.

Lougle · 09/10/2011 21:32

I don't think it is unsupportive to have a differing view from another poster. I don't think it is unsupportive to say that some parents of children with some SN are getting transport when they don't need it. For example, if you child had very severe dyslexia, but was otherwise NT, they may well have a statement of SEN, and may well automatically qualify for transport. Yet, they may well be developmentally as able as any other NT child.

The council in question made it clear that it anticipated that MOST children already getting support would continue to get it.

I would also anticipate that most councils and most schools would not want their children turning up half-an-hour late, so would do something about it.

Having a child with SN doesn't mean that I can't have an opinion that isn't homogenous with the rest of the posters here. And I won't be told what is an appropriate topic for this board. Who gets to decide that?

Peachy · 09/10/2011 21:33

Ours runs a bus or car that picks up every child on the way

So it's surely better to have one bus driver and escort for 6 kids / 2 kids (but then only 2 in ds1's year at Base) than one escort per family?

Marne · 09/10/2011 21:33

Not all schools have breakfast club and not all of us can afford breakfast club. Dd's school has breakfast club for the price of £2.50 per morning.

Peachy · 09/10/2011 21:35

Well Lougle I don't get a post that says you can have an opinion but I don't get to have one about what's suitable for here

One rule for all and all that, your opinion my opinion whatever

Lougle · 09/10/2011 21:49

I just don't like this trend that I am seeing. A trend that says agree=supportive, and disagree=unsupportive.

We are all individuals, with individual backgrounds.

I can't see that any of the people here would have a problem demonstrating that, if they get transport, they keep transport.

The council are giving almost 2 years' notice of the changes. No-one is suddenly going to get caught short. The council have said that even parental difficulties will be taken into account for transport. How much fairer can they be?

Original poster
GossipWitch · 09/10/2011 21:54

That's all good saying breakfast clubs this and after school clubs etc but you may have to think about the added expenses.

As to the politicalness of this, it isn't a political thread, its to make everyone aware of the proposed changes, its also not a top trumps thing either, this is supposed to be a support thread, and that was all I was hoping for a bit of support and people to say actually these proposals are wrong, unfair and discriminative, especially as the councils can make cuts elsewhere.

OP posts:
BakeliteBelle · 09/10/2011 21:55

Lougle I'm with you on withdrawing transport from those who are able to travel independently, in exactly the same way as any other child as long as they can access their local school. Why should they pay more if they cannot be offered an adequate education locally?

Original poster
GossipWitch · 09/10/2011 21:58

marne your dd2 will still be able to get transport as she lives over 3 miles away from sn school.

OP posts:
thefirstMrsDeVeerie · 09/10/2011 21:59

Are there any children with dyslexia that get transport?

I understood that the lower rates of DLA were going to be abolished Peachy. I have heard that the children's rates are to be left alone for now but I cant quite bring myself to believe that.

Peachy · 09/10/2011 22:01

They've run it for years here Lougle anyway.

Thing is, parents DO get caught! A lot.

The key thing here seems to be 'suitability': parents being effectively pushed into schools they don't agree are sutable becuase they can't afford the cost of the bus ticket to the one they think is better, or simply they can't drive. We were lucky where we are as there is no catchment school but the other Base we looked at deemed suitable wasn't- because it ran classes of 20+ and ds3 shuts down in a class over about 10. It's random that we live in the only village with no assigned school but I am aware that otherwise ds3 would have not made the progress he has, including gaining speech and continence.

And that's RL, it is what is happening here. Parents forced to choose between working or a decent aplcement (because of getting children there), or just not being able to access a school that they beleive will help their child. All teh schools here bar one or two are generalised bases but they tend to acquire different sets of kids- so everyone in ds3's Base has ASD, next one along more ADHD / behavioral..... getting your child where they should be can be crucial and adding mroe hhurdles makes that ever less likely.

Peachy · 09/10/2011 22:02

MrsDV as per current plans it's being left so whilst I am inclined to agree long term, they will ahve to start from step one to do that and it's a post-election thing at most i think now, we are after all on the mid term 'oh shit let's keep some voters please!' panic soon....

Original poster
GossipWitch · 09/10/2011 22:08

lougle a child in that situation that is able to get themselves to school then that is fair. Its the children who can't and may slip through the net that concerns me, my ds may not even need to go to an sn school, as he can be fairly able and independent, depending on his mood. However if he does end up going to the sn school i will be having to put ds2 in breakfast club for 7.30 am so that i can walk ds1 the hour long 2.6 mile trip to school, and add on an extra half an hour as I fear i'll be pushing ds1 up the hill because of his reluctance to walk, by the time he would have got to school he would have walked just over 3 miles. but as we live only 1.7 ,miles from the school then we wouldn't be allowed the transport. Cue completely knackered mother !!! and it would be the only route I could take as ds2 couldn't walk 4.3 miles to ds1s school then his own due to his age

OP posts:
thefirstMrsDeVeerie · 09/10/2011 22:09

I began sticking my fingers in my ears and going 'la la la' ages ago Peachy. So I know I have a patchy understanding at best.

I am not usually one to bury my head in the sand but some things are just a bit too anxiety making to deal with.

BakeliteBelle · 09/10/2011 22:22

Like all these proposed cuts, it is desperately anxiety provoking and all completely unclear. Recently I have begun to wonder, with all these cuts and talks of a worse economic situation than the Depression, whether we are on the cusp of some sort of disaster in the care system.... Still, as long as Liam Fox can line his friend's pockets and as long as the Tory cabinet can hang onto their millions, I'll sleep well at night