JUST 3 WEEKS TO GO: Vital Brent Council consultation on transport to school for children with special needs and disabilites

 

 

Brent Council is asking families with children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) for their views on proposals to update the Council’s Travel Assistance Policy. LINK

 

The consultation is open for another 3 weeks. There have been only 11 responses online so far.

 

The Home to School Travel Assistance policy provides support to help children and young people to travel to school when they might otherwise be prevented by disability or special need. 

 

The service currently supports approximately 1,300 children and young people in Brent. The council must provide travel assistance to children aged between five and 16 who meet the criteria set by the Department for Education. 

 

Parents have previously expressed dissatisfaction with the service that is shared with Harrow, over issues such as long journey times and difficulty in accessing help and called for a review. LINK The draft policy makes no bones about the fact that reducing the cost of the service to the Council is a significant part of the review:

 

Budgetary considerations: Free travel to school is a valuable service for many families, but budget pressures mean the Council often has to make difficult decisions about how to make the best use of the limited resources.

 

Face to face and online sessions are taking place with parents and carers to discuss the experiences and needs of local families, and in particular those with children with SEND.

 

Councillor Gwen Grahl, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools said: 

 

Every child and young person is entitled to education and no one should be prevented from accessing it because they cannot travel to school. We want all of our children and young people in Brent to have the best start in life. It’s really important that people feed into this consultation so that our Home to School Travel policy enables those who need it the right support to travel to one of our great schools.

 

The Council says the proposed changes to the policy also reflect the ambitions of the Brent SEND Strategy for 2021-2025, which focuses on the council’s ethos to allow children and young people in Brent to lead happy fulfilled lives. The consultation is open until Sunday 14 April. Its findings will help shape the final policy that will be approved by the Cabinet later this year. Those interested can read the draft policy and have their say online, on the council’s consultation page

 

There is an emphasis on children travelling more independently rather than relying on the school transport service. However, this will often mean parents escorting their children.

 

EXTRACTS FROM THE DRAFT POLICY

 

The Education Act 1996 and this policy use the phrase ‘travel assistance’ because the form this takes will vary and often does not involve the Council providing any transport at all.  The Council will determine what is appropriate in each case, taking account of its legal obligations, the needs of the applicant, safety considerations, the best use of the Council’s resources, any expressed preference and any other relevant matter.  In order to achieve as much independence and as much active travel as possible, when reviewing travel assistance  applications, we look at the potential options in the following order:

 

 

    Travel pass – This is a free pass in the form of an Oyster Card that is available for use on public transport such as buses and is the most common form of travel assistance provided. Brent Council considers that this will be suitable for the majority of children and young people up to the age of 16.

 

     Personal Travel Budget – This is a sum of money provided to parents/carers/guardians of children who are assessed as eligible for travel assistance. This allows parents/carers/guardians to arrange personalised, flexible travel arrangements that suit the needs of their child and family.

 

The sum provided is based on the safe walking distance between home and school and the number of days per week the child or young person is scheduled to attend school or college.

 

Parents/Carers/Guardians can use a PTB in any way they deem necessary to ensure their child/young person attends school regularly and arrives and leaves on time. Parents will not need to provide any evidence for how the money is spent. PTBs will not affect any of the other benefits the family already receives.

 

If attendance falls, Brent Council will contact the parent/carer/guardian and review whether the PTB is still the best mode of travel assistance. As a result of the review, the travel assistance offered may change to a more suitable mode or PTBs reduced or withdrawn, depending on consultation with the school and family.

 

The parent/carer or adult individual then assumes full responsibility for the travel arrangements and getting the child or themselves to their place of education on time and achieving good attendance. It is anticipated that the use of personal travel budgets can meet most individual needs and the Council encourages their use wherever appropriate. The provision of travel budgets can be offered in a number of ways such as mileage allowance.

 

Provision of a Travel Buddy – A travel buddy may be provided to accompany a child, young person or adult to their place of education whether using public transport or on Council provided transport. A travel buddy will only be provided where they are necessary for the safe operation of vehicles and/or the care of children and young people and where parents or carers are not reasonably able to accompany them

 

 

 

    Transport vehicles – If we have considered and ruled out all other options, we may provide a suitable vehicle, specifically adapted as necessary, to transport the child or young person. Vehicles and drivers are provided by a suitably qualified, registered, commercial provider working to contractual standards set by the Council. 

 

In general, vehicles are routed to pick up a number of children from different locations who attend a particular school. Therefore, journeys can be relatively long, and the child or young person will spend more time in the vehicle than with other forms of travel assistance.

 

Each route will be planned on the basis of the start and finish times of the place of education and the shortest possible route for all passengers on a particular vehicle.  Passengers will be picked up and dropped off at a convenient location, within a reasonable distance from their home, in many cases from recognised bus stops. A home pick up and drop off will only be made where it is deemed essential due to the individual’s significant needs.

 

If your child is accessing a collection point, you will be responsible for ensuring that your child gets safely to and from the collection point at the appropriate time. If your child’s travel assistance offer requires them to walk to a collection point, then it is expected that an adult will accompany them where necessary. You will also be responsible for your child when they are waiting for transport and when they leave the transport at the end of the day.

 

In the event of an emergency, late running of the service, or an adult not being present at a collection point, children will be taken to an agreed safe point for collection.

 

§  Other – The Council may provide any other form of travel assistance which is considered suitable and will consider any suggestions from applicants about any particular type of travel assistance.

 

There is an online consultation session tonight from 7pm until 8.30pm:

 EVENTBRITE BOOKING

 

Other sessions (note the St Raph's event is on Tuesday 26th March - Brent Council omitted the date):

 

Session 6 Booking

Session 7 Booking

Session 8 Booking

Parents & carers give voice to problems over SEND transport that leave them and their children anxious

• In June 2023 the Government published new School Transport Guidance.
  

• In July 2023 Brent Council Cabinet agreed a three year extension of the joint arrangement with Harrow Council for the provision of a shared transport service for children with Special Educations Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The report to Cabinet said the joint scheme had saved the councils £250,000. LINK
  

• In September 2023 the Local Government Ombudsman found against Brent Council in a case about problems with school transport encountered by a Brent SEND pupil.
  

• Local councils are facing huge deficits and part of that budget crisis is due to excalating numbers of pupils requiring school transport and increased costs of that transport. There is pressure to reduce spending in the area.
  

• Brent Council's Special Needs Block is in deficit making it harder for parents to get an Education, Health and Care Plan for their child/ren and the slow process means many schools have to provide addition help without any addtional budget. If an ECHP is eventually granted the budget cannot be back-dated.

• Due to lack of specialist SEND provision in Brent many children have to travel outside the borough to school.

All these factors formed the background to a recent meeting of Brent Fights Back! attended by parents and carers of SEND pupil users of the shared transport service.  

The Agreement approved by Cabinet includes many performance indicators to be measured. They begin on page 30 LINK and these are the top three:

The Ombusman case was about school transport reliability:

1. Mrs X complained about the transport provided for her disabled child to get to and from school. She said the transport was often late without any communication or updates and staff on the transport lacked the skills and training to support young people with Special Education Needs. As a result, Mrs X says her child was often late to school and arrived distressed.
2. Mrs X also complained that the Council failed to complete the actions it committed to in response to her complaint. She had to go to avoidable time and trouble pursuing this.

The Ombudsman found LINK:

  Summary: The Council accepted fault when it investigated Mrs X’s complaint about school transport for her Disabled child. However, the Council’s failure to complete the actions agreed in its complaint response was further fault which caused Mrs X injustice. The Council has agreed to apologise, take the action it agreed to, make a payment to Mrs X and improve its services for the future.

More than a month later it was clear from the meeting with parents and carers that reliability was still an issue. Late collection and late delivery left vulnerable pupils, who are in need of routine, safety and predictability, upset and parents waiting anxiously for the service.

Long routes were blamed along with more pupils (so more drops) per vehicle  and the many roadworks causing traffic delays in the borough.  

One of the main calls was for a tracking app that could let parents know where the vehcile was on its journey.  The service needs to recognise that parents have a duty to ensure their child is safe and an app would help with this. There were complaints about late information about transport arrangements at the start of term.  One parent reported that it had taken two weeks for transport to be arranged for a new school so the child had to stay at home.

In terms of comparable size and scale of the transport services provided by Harrow on behalf of Brent, there are currently 92 in-house operated routes and 223 taxi routes compared to 74 in-house operated routes and 123 taxi routes for transporting clients in Harrow. (Cabinet Report)

In addition to minibuses some children are transported by taxi and there were concerns that frequent changes of escorts meant that children were not travelling with people they knew and who understood their needs. One disturbing example was a child who was made to get out of the road side of a vehicle putting them at risk.

A pick-up arranged for 7.20am could be made at 8.10 or 8.20am, or 6.55am. One child had more than 3 hours of travel a day, picked up at 7.04am and back home at 6.30pm. Another child was only 20 minutes from their school but picked up at 7.45am.

Parents wanted more training for escorts to ensure they understood the needs of the child and importance of safety and also training for when children made the transition to the use of public transport.

A driver said that staff take pride in the buses and try to clean them twice a week but some vehicle are reaching the end of their lives. Some routes are long but drivers have no control over that. Buses do run slightly late but there are real traffic issues and 20mph limits. The minimum number of children has been raised to 10-12 and one driver and one escort is not enough. There should be more transport tailored to individual needs.

The website Special Needs Jungle reminds Local Authorities:

• They must consider each transport application on its own merits and should not be rigidly sticking to their policies.
• They have duties under the Equality Act 2010, including the duty not to discriminate on the basis of disability.
• Children with SEND or who have mobility difficulties may be eligible for transport even if they live within statutory walking distances, and do not have to have an EHCP.  In our experience, it still seems to surprise some LAs that children with SEND living within walking distance of their school are eligible for transport.
• Provision of transport costs must cover both return journeys unless it is inappropriate, e.g. if the parent works near the school. This demolishes a favourite tactic of some councils, that an agreement is to pay for transport only for those legs of the school journey when the child is actually in the vehicle.
• Means, including disability benefits, are not to be taken into account.
• LAs must give as much notice of changes to transport arrangements as possible, given they’re frequently dealing with children who have difficulty with changes in routine. At this time of year, with the new term just started many parents still waiting for confirmation of transport details, so it may be worth reminding LAs of this.
• LAs must take reasonable steps to meet medical needs (e.g. anaphylactic shock, asthma, seizures) during journeys.
• Behavioural problems on transport are often the result of SEND, and transport can only be withdrawn as a last resort. LAs will still have to meet their education duties to the child concerned and cannot simply tell parents it’s their responsibility. Many LAs’ polices have in the past included a provision allowing them to withdraw transport due to poor behaviour. 
• LAs cannot assume parents will provide transport without their consent. It is unlawful to insist without consent to limiting transport provision to, for instance, a travel allowance or mileage for parents. LAs also need parental consent for arrangements for providing escorts, including expecting parents to act in that capacity.
• The guidance states that LAs may “consider it appropriate” to make arrangements for transport at times other than the beginning and end of the school day for children who cannot attend all day, such as for medical reasons. However, we suggest this is inadequate: there is nothing in the statute limiting the transport duty school hours.
• Local transport policies must be published on LA websites and in the SEND Local Offer. They should be easy to find, clear, and give information on how to apply for free transport, plus how to appeal.
  

Brent Council is aiming to reduce the amount of out-of-borough travel by increasing the amount of SEN provision in the borough with a 150 place school in London Road and 16+ provision at the Welsh Harp.The Manor School satellite at Newman Catholic College has been increased to 63 places.  Primary schools with falling pupil numbers are being encouraged to use the space freed up for additional special needs provision.  In July the Cabinet were told that the number of clients transported by Harrow on behalf of Brent was approximately 1,228 SEND children and 119 adults.

Brent Cabinet LINK did not consider going out to procurement for an alternative provider for the £43m over 3 years contract,

The estimated value of the proposed Inter Authoirty Agreement ( IAA) for the initial 3 year term is £43,000,000 and therefore it is classed as a High Value Contract for the purposes of the Council’s Contract Standing Orders. Contract Standing orders require that High Value Contracts are ordinarily procured via a tender process. However, Contract Standing Order 84(a) provides that subject to compliance with procurement legislation, Members may agree an exemption from the requirement to procure in accordance with Contract Standing Orders where there are “good operational and/or financial reasons”.

For the reasons detailed above, it is not considered that there is a breach of procurement legislation as Regulation 12(7) permits the joint collaborative partnership proposed between authorities. Furthermore, Officers consider that there are good operational and financial reasons for entering into the IAA with Harrow as set out in paragraph 3 of this report.

Ominously the report notes:

The significant financial pressures relating to this operation and the demand for the service will be addressed through the separate service transformation review that is underway.

Meanwhile parents are left grappling with a transport service that to many of them doesn't see as fit for purpose in addition to their struggles to get their children an EHCP and a suitabler school placement.

Advice re school transport is available from SENTAS - Special Educational Needs Transport Advocacy Service HERE

At the Brent Fights Back! meeting parents and carers agreed that they needed a collective voice to overcome the isolation of just protesting as individuals and needed to make clear and specific demands over a communication system, more respectful treatment and shorter journeys. 

The first step is supporting a petition going to the Cabinet on Monday December 11th at 10am LINK:

 

 "Special Educational Needs and Disability School transport buses

We the undersigned petition the council to Review the current home to school travel assistance offer for eligible SEND families in Brent and to urgently provide more school buses to reduce the journey times for children on the current routes to and from school."


The ePetion was signed by 123 people, and the deadline has now passed for additional signatures.

Information:

Zaynab Alfadhi is scheduled to speak for 5 minutes regarding the petition.
 

Parent carers and supporters, will attend the Cabinet meeting to support Zaynab and the ongoing campaign to secure safe and appropriate SEND transport for all eligible children and young people in Brent.

If you are available, please attend the meeting.

It is essential to hold Brent Council accountable for their decision-making and future policies on school travel for compulsory-age children. Our collective advocacy for the safety and appropriate support of our children and young people is crucial so that they can fulfil their potential.

The meeting starts at 10 am so everyone needs to arrive and be seated before it starts.

*Meeting attendance
Monday 11th December 2023 at 10.00 am, Cabinet
Venue:   Conference Hall - Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ*

The meeting can also be viewed online via the below link.

https://brent.public-i.tv/core/portal/home

 

Problems with SEND School Transport in Brent? Meeting Tuesday 21st November on Zoom

 

ZOOM LINK

SEN children uncollected while others delivered to wrong locations

Brent Council has apologised for the problems special needs pupils and their  parents encountered with the new school transport system introduced this term LINK. They admitted:

We know that many families have not had the information they needed, when they needed it, about the services for their child. We also know that in some cases transport has failed to arrive when it should have, some children have been delivered to wrong locations, and there have been problems with route timings. To compound these problems it has been extremely difficult to get through to the (West London Alliance) Transport Bureau on the phone. We understand how upsetting, inconvenient and difficult this is to all those affected and can only apologise. 

They went on:

It is clear that the Bureau was over optimistic about the timetables for implementing the new IT system on which they were relying and that serious problems about data transfer from former IT systems, incomplete testing of the system, and the relative inexperience of staff led to the problems that have occurred.

As a result of this failure Brent and Harrow Councils' transport staff temporarily took back the responsibility for designing routes last week and 'will develop new and reliable routes and schedules for their Boroughs based on last term's routes, using their previous software packages'.