This is a stinker. And a bit long, sorry.
DD1 goes to a SLD/PMLD school with a diverse range of needs, medical or otherwise. Most of the kids come in on LEA transport, and this is achieved by a range of buses and taxis, wheelchairs, SN car seats etc. etc. There is one firm who does most of the buses and another who does most of the cars. The problem of course is that every time a child joins or leaves the school (which due to the way they handle nursery/reception intake happens throughout the year, not in September) the routes have to be rejigged and the needs of every passenger taken into account. It's a big overhead; they have tried managing it themselves (which costs them £££) and they have tried farming it out (which didn't work well). This year's solution is to put all the transport with one provider to simplify things so they can use a computer system to calculate the routes.
DD1's current arrangement works well. They have tried putting her on a bus previously but it wasn't safe: she has severe but subtle epilepsy and so needs close watching and short journeys. At present she is last pickup on a route with two other quiet kids and the escort is excellent.
So, obviously, the council have cancelled all these taxi arrangements and handed all the contracts to the bus firm. The computer system has recalculated the route so that the kids are allocated on whatever route is cheapest, petrol-wise, and they think they are picking DD1 up at 7.54 (she won't be ready, I can't get her meds in by then) to travel on a bus with 4 other kids for an hour.
Well, I have spent half term phoning various people in the LEA, council and the bus firm saying various polite variations on "over my dead body". But they aren't listening. The bottom line is that until I can get a letter from the paediatrician saying she needs solo transport (and she doesn't, she just doesn't need to be on a bus, so it's tricky already) then she will be on the bus for an hour. There is no middle ground under the new arrangements. The paed is up to his ears in the brown stuff atm as he has been away and has a huge admin backlog. His secretary is sympathetic and has bumped us up the in-tray but it could take weeks to reach us and then months to work through the LEA bureaucracy.
Meantime, we go on holiday in a week and DD1 gets respite at the hospice. The hospice are not going to be able to take her to and from school every day, so I am going to have to withdraw her from school for 2 weeks to keep her safe. I'm going to talk to the head tomorrow - truancy isn't a concept that really makes sense in DD1 terms, but I don't want to trigger some sort of automatic process.
I've had stern words with pretty much everyone involved about Risk Assessment etc, but everyone pretty much agrees with me but blames another department. It's a fecking shambles. It looks like the only way I can solve this is to go higher up in the council, and if I do that it will get political. They have already started lying about me (saying I agreed on the phone to trial the bus route - which I never would have done, why would I say I would try to put my child's life at risk? Wtf would be the point of that?) and I'm pretty sure there's no legal compulsion for them to comply so I can see this dragging out forever. :sigh: Meanwhile, she is entitled to safe transport - but won't be getting it.
Has anyone ever found a magic bullet for dealing with Transport?