FAMILIES’ DIFFICULTIES WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS (SEN) TRANSPORT PROVISION

Families whose children need SEN transport, need to be sure that their children and young people can be safe whilst being transported to and from their education placement, and that the transport itself is not going to exacerbate anxiety, or physical or mental health conditions. In order to do this they need suitable, trained drivers and/or chaperones and they need consistent, reliable provision that is put in place in time for all their children and young people’s care and support needs to be understood.

Families have been sharing their difficulties in getting, and maintaining, suitable transport provision for their children and young people who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

Families describe:

‘I have been told the provision is to use a bus, or for me to have a travel allowance. My child needs supervision due to their medical condition, there is no bus available, I don’t drive, my whole family have ill health, and I have two other young adults who need help and support from me”

Another family were told the same statement, in their situation: “My child needs to start doing things more independently but can’t manage a bus which would stop on the wrong side of a main road, as my child would have to cross the busy road unsupervised and walk about a mile down a single lane.”

Families are left without any details of the transport provision they thought was secure and are then being messaged to say no provision is being made when there are only a few days until the start of the academic year.

One such family went through the emotionally and financially draining process of appealing for Transport provision, and winning, last year, for two years, only for provision to be taken away.

Another family told us “My eldest is starting school in less than a week and transport has still not been arranged, I have had a phone call this morning to say that my middle child’s transport allowance is being withdrawn, and my youngest’s has been rejected.” This is despite all three children having acknowledged additional needs and disabilities.

Families asking for help from the Alliance in addressing these issues, shared their experiences in more detail

HELP US TO TRAIN SOCIAL WORKERS

We’d like your help – please fill in this brief survey on what you’d like social workers to understand about additional needs. Members of the Alliance are meeting with the Gloucestershire social care academy about providing social workers with training to help them

• identify needs that come from from disability (not poor parenting),
• how those needs impact on the whole family and
• how to support families

This is part of the work on improving disability needs assessments that the Alliance is doing with the Gloucestershire Parent Carer Forum and Sue Hall, GCC Head of Service, Disabled Children and Young People’s Service

If you’d like to help create some training resources by contributing something in writing, recording your views, helping us make a video or doing some online or in person training please tell us on the form

https://info.parentandcareralliance.org.uk/ipsea-train/socialcare

Please share your young person’s journey through services so we can find common issues Click here to contact us

We need to highlight the true reality of living with disabilities so that we can influence decision makers and bring about improvements for all our families. We understand what you are going through, please Click here for Lucy’s story

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