Consultation over changes to the home to school transport policy for children with special educational needs

Councillor Donna Martin

Rochdale Council Cabinet has agreed on a report that will see proposed changes to home to school transport for children with special educational needs (SEN) go out to consultation.

A report presented to councillors on Thursday (10 September), was seeking permission to consult with all stakeholders about proposed changes to the SEN transport policy, to ensure that the policy framework for home to school/college transport reflects the expectations set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.

In August 2014, Cabinet gave approval for the Assistant Director to explore with colleagues in Bury and Oldham the opportunity for the shared commission of transport services for children with SEN/disabilities across the three Local Authorities in order to achieve savings.

Councillor Donna Martin, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services at Rochdale Council, was keen to stress that these proposals are not looking to axe the service.

She said: “These proposals are not about axing anything. It is about going out to consultation with the stakeholders for a shared service between Rochdale and Bury. That is it.”

Consultation with stakeholders will focus on a number of key changes to the policy including:

• Only providing home to school transport for school aged children with SEN and disability. Transport for pre-school and post 16 would only be provided for exceptional cases and would be at the discretion of the Local Authority.
• SEN transport would no longer fund travel to and from the respite/short break provision.
• It is proposed that pupils/students be assessed for travel assistance taking into account the needs of the child or young person and the distance between home and school. There is long-standing custom and practice of transport being provided to all children and young people attending a special school and a significant proportion of children and young people with statements of SEN/education, health and care plans (EHCPs) attending Resourced Provision and in some instances mainstream schools.
• Where there is an assessed need, the statutory duty placed on the local authority to facilitate attendance at school will be met through one of a number of offers, with each of those offers being subject to strict criteria:
  - Independent travel training and the provision of a bus pass (Transport for Greater Manchester issues bus passes free of charge to students with a disability).
  - Use of personal budgets to enable families to make their own travel arrangements.
  - Home to school transport but with common collection and dropping off points.
  - The provision of door to door service will only be provided where all other options have been exhausted.

The consultation will take place over the autumn term and a further report will be presented to councillors in December providing feedback from the consultation and making recommendations.