Parents stressed and uncertain over student transport funding confusion
DELAYS MEAN PEOPLE PANIC ABOUT HOW PUPILS WILL BE ABLE TO GET TO SCHOOL
PARENTS of young people with special educational needs have been left stressed and uncertain over how their children will get to school due to delays over the funding for their transport.
Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are entitled to free school transport if they cannot walk to school due to their needs or a mobility issue, but some parents still have to pay for a portion of the transport themselves.
But with less than two weeks left until the end of the summer holidays, parents of some post-16 special needs students are still waiting to hear how much money they’ll be awarded and how much they’ll have to make up out of their own pocket.
Jon Cawkwell, 43, and his wife Diane, 42, from Osgathorpe, near Loughborough, and their son Isaac, 16, are among the families affected.
Isaac has high-functioning autism, demand avoidance behaviour and high levels of anxiety and the lack of certainty surrounding how he will travel to school has been particularly stressful for him.
The family were sent an email by Leicestershire County Council on July 2, informing them they would receive a personal transport budget for Isaac and had 20 days to appeal against the amount they were awarded.
But the letter didn’t tell them how much they would receive. The council finally sent them that information on July 30 - eight days after the deadline to appeal had passed.
They were told they would receive the standard amount, even though Isaac had been classified as high risk in a previous council assessment. Fortunately, the family had decided to put in an appeal within the time limit, just in case they received disappointing news. However, they were then sent two letters - one saying they had won the appeal and one saying they had lost. Diane said: “Well, which one was I supposed to believe?
“It’s incredibly stressful as a parent.”
The letter also stated that there was no guarantee that Isaac’s previous driver would be assigned to him, which has also ramped up his stress levels.
Jon said: “From the last day of school he was like ‘alright, well I might never see you again’ to his home-to-school driver.
“He picks his skin on his fingers [when he’s anxious] and his fingers are red raw, and that’s only been more evident over this period where we’ve got all this uncertainty. “We’ve just been saying ‘Don’t worry, Isaac, everything will be fine, you’ll be fine.’
‘CONSTANT STRESS’
“He’s got this cadet force camp weekend coming up so we’ve been focusing on that and telling him to find out what he needs to get so we can make sure we’ve got all the key needs for camp to give him a direction to focus his attention away from what’s going on.
“But he does keep coming back with ‘what’s happening with school, is it all sorted yet?’
“I think the biggest impact is the constant stress that it’s been for my wife, Diane, because it’s not just the PTB (personal transport budget), it’s the constant battle to get what you should have for your child.”
Sunie Raithatha, 47, from Wigston, is still waiting for a decision on her second appeal after her first was cancelled in July due to unforeseen circumstances.
Her daughter has autism and mild cerebral palsy, but is unable to walk three miles to school or use public transport alone.
Sunie said: “She wouldn’t know how to get from a to b, she’s not aware of her surroundings.
“If you put her on a bus, she would just get off at the next stop, she wouldn’t realise there are several stops before her destination.”
Sunie works in a SEND school and cannot drive her daughter due to the fact their start times overlap. Her only option is to put her in a taxi, but the prospect fills her with fear.
She said: “It’s not understanding whether the taxi driver is going to help her in and out of the vehicle and ensure all her belongings go to school with her.
“It’s also that element of fear, of being scared of not even knowing who that taxi driver is, of who your daughter’s going with.
“Should my second appeal not go as planned, it’s going to be hell for me. I’m going to have to put my daughter in an unregulated taxi with no escort support because I can’t afford it.
“I feel like I’m going to be forced to give up my job. If this transport thing doesn’t work out, I probably will have to give in my notice.”
Jodie Branston, 41, a single mother from Sileby, faces a similar dilemma over her daughter’s education.
Her daughter has ASD, ADHD, anxiety and sensory needs and is due to start college this year studying animal care. Jodie lost her second stage appeal, leaving her with a budget of £2,300, which only covers the costs of a taxi for one out of the three days a week her daughter attends college and still leaves them one month short.
The college she’s due to attend is 19 miles away, with no bus links.
‘ALWAYS SOMETHING TO FIGHT FOR’
She said: “I’m just so stressed because I just don’t know how I’m going to get my daughter to college.
“If I could drive her I would, but I physically cannot. If I don’t work, I don’t know how we’d survive.”
“They’re saying that children have to be in school until they’re 18, but they’re not supporting that.
“It’s just so stressful, there’s always something you have to fight for, there is always something.
“I’m a single parent, I work for the NHS, I care for people and yet there is no one there for me when I need that support for my daughter.”
Jodie also criticised the council’s procedures, stating her second stage appeal had a representative from the transport department on the panel, despite the fact it was meant to be completely independent.
The county council decided in March 2018 to halt the home-toschool transport provision for SEND 16 to 18-year-olds.
At the time of the decision, 12 SEND families took the matter to court, only for the judge to rule that the actions taken by the county council were unfair but legal.
He picks his skin [when he’s anxious] and his fingers are red raw, where we’ve got all this uncertainty
Jon Cawkwell