School Transport

[007paul007]

Sorry but I need a rant , just to let off steam but if anyone can give me any advice it would be a appreciative. Firstly I have two children, my first child is 16 and is on the severe end of the autistic spectrum and currently has transport for school , which he still goes to. My second child is 14 , has a statement of special needs , has communication and understanding/comphrehending things, she started secondary school 2 years ago , it is a school which a special language and communications department within a mainstream school. We had to fight to get transport for her as she was on the border of the mileage being away from the school and we have no transport. Anyway we got transport awarded for her and there has been nothing but problems, for example the taxi pulled up in the car park this morning and apparently waited there 10 minutes and pulled off, we can not see the car park from where we are as it is blocked by houses and also we have our hands full getting the oldest ready, normally the the old excort we used to have used to beep their horn and out my daughter went, but this one won't and says it is against the law.

My daughter had to have the day off school , the taxi firm want her to stand alone in the car park or us to stand with her , when I have already explained that we have our hands full with the eldest. The council say they cannot do anything as the firm say the driver sat there , they want us to leave our daughter alone in the car park and yet the driver of the cab cannot leave the kids on there own.

Frustrated or what anything you could suggest I could do.

[Sallya]

Really odd that you should bring this up, 'cos I've just been nosing on IPSEA's website, and they had a case law or something, about 'transport not being stressful.'

S

xxx

[007paul007]

what is the site address for IPSEA then I might give it a look .

[Sallya]

www.ipsea.org.uk

 

 

scroll down, look under 11 case laws

3 third case law

sorry can't do kinks

s

xxx

[Sallya]

or links even

x

[007paul007]

thanks for that i have just read it , is it worth quoting to the LEA or not ?

[Kazzen161]

Would the taxi driver call you on the phone to let you know he is there? You would not even have answer it necessarily, if he let it ring three times and then hung up.

 

Karen

[007paul007]

I asked that already kazza and they cannot do it , for some unknown reason .

[CarerQuie]

We have to wait in the street for our transport but then again,Rh is my youngest and we don't have difficulties with the others.xx

[Suze]

Paul sorry your having this problem, just how much does this taxi firm want this contract????......I,d phone the lea case worker who handles your daughters statement and discuss it with them.

[Mother in Need]

Good point there Paul. We too had problems with the taxi firm years ago, and when we complained to the LEA they simply ditched them and they found a much better company!

[007paul007]

I have already spoken to the person responcible for school transport , she had a right go at them last term and since then , like today's incident , if they say they came and sat early and waited 10 minutes like they say they did today , the lady cannot do anything about it cause they say they have been , they could be lying for all we know .

i have been in contact with my GP who is a doing a letter to say how streesful things are in the morning , and also how much more likely my son is due to have a siezure , as all the ones he has had have been when waking up, because of this we cannot go out with my daughter and because of her special needs , it would be unwise to let her stand there on her own, also the firm change drivers willy nilly and she gets differents drivers each day.

[phasmid]

There was another thread about transport on the forum recently. On it I pointed the poster towards the DfES guidance for school transport for children with SEN. All the LEA duties and obligations are disscussed in this document. ALL LEAs are required to have an SEN specific transport policy. In it should be the information you need. I think the thread was in 'Education'. I'll have a look and see if I can find it for you and post the link from it on here.

[phasmid]

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=3272

 

It's on the above thread. You need the second of the two links I put up.

 

Hope it helps.

[007paul007]

A quick update on the transport situation , it turned up ok this morning and my daughter got into the cab as usual and off she went . Well 3.15pm came and went and my daughter was not home so come 20 to 4 , still no daughter had arrived I called the taxi firm, only to be told by the propietor herself that they did not know where the driver was and could not get hold of him by any means , even his mobile they could not contact him through.

I rang the school and found that my daughter was still there with the other children , I then phone the conucil transport department and was told by the lady another cab was being sent out and apparently because they are have their office done out this had caused problems,yet they had the 6 week holiday to have this office done and not only that they surely should of been to have a plan put in place as soon as they knew the dates the office was going to be done.

Anyway I have now spoken to the LEA officer concerned and quoted the disability law on the ISPEA site , she was amazed and astounded that I knew this, she is starting an investigation , even though they will not recieve my letter by monday.

I will let you know how things pan out , but considering it is the first week , we have had 3 problems with them and 6 different drivers to boot .

[Mother in Need]

Crikey Paul, not very confindence inspiring, isn't it...

[lil_me]

Really sorry to hear you are having these problems. My partner is a taxi driver and I asked him about the beeping etc, and from what he said they've had threats of badges/plates being removed due to complaints about beeping horns. This may explain the reluctance to do so but there are other things which can be done.

 

He also said that if you can not see the car park he should either be asked to arrive on time or earlier so he is there precisely on time, or to call yourself when he is there. Really he should be on time anyway.

 

He straight away also said to complain to the person responsible for transport. They are paid quite a lot of money for these contracts and if the taxi firm are not doing the job properly they should not do it at all. Maybe setting out what is needed by your children to reduce stress eg max of 2 different drivers (to allow for time off etc) on time, maybe an escort who can come to the door and collect the child if the driver isn't willing to do so (my partner goes to the door to collect his passengers and walks them to the car) etc etc.

 

Thankfully my partner really cares about the little guys he collects (both on the spectrum) and will bend over backwards to make sure everything is done properly, if he's off ill he worries about who will be collecting them, as he knows what effect it can have on the children.

Edited September 9, 2005 by lil_me

[phasmid]

Do the taxi drivers carry mobiles? If so can they not ring you when they arrive and let you know they have arrived that way? (Or radio their office and have them do it?) I know from experience that, even with the best will in the world, no taxi firm can say with absolute certainty that they will arrive at 8-05 am (for example). This might be one way to solve the problem.