Special Educational Needs Transport for Pupils

Our SEND home to school transport service is under extreme pressure at the moment. Some families are unfortunately finding themselves without the agreed service at short notice. We did have transport arranged for all school children prior to the new Academic year. However, some providers have been unable to deliver due to a lack of drivers. So that we can meet our high standards of service, we only allow drivers specifically trained and approved for SEND work. We usually ensure that our providers have sufficient qualified staff to work on our SEN journeys and to provide cover in cases of staff absence or resignation. However, since the pandemic there has been a national shortage of drivers and we are unable to enforce this point. This means that if no qualified drivers are available for our work, then we must withdraw transport rather than provide a sub-standard service.

Please understand that we only withdraw transport when we are simply unable to provide a safe, quality service. We understand how difficult this can be and do our best to reinstate service as soon as possible. In the meantime, if a child is eligible we will work with the family to help make alternative arrangements. This could include providing funds to enable families to make their own travel plans. Our phone lines are extremely busy and we are struggling to respond to all calls. We would ask that parents call us only once to allow us to resolve queries in the shortest possible timescale. We will be contacting those families affected twice a week to provide an update.

Parents have ultimate responsibility to ensure that their children attend school. However, Newcastle City Council have a statutory duty to make travel arrangements to support them with children and young people aged 5 to 16 where:

The young person is accessing a specialist educational setting that has been agreed by the Local Authority as the closest setting to meet the young person’s needs.
The young person has a physical disability that would prevent him/her from making the usual type of accompanied journey
The young person has a disability leading to significant social and/or emotional immaturity. This may be that their behaviour leaves them extremely vulnerable in social settings, that would prevent him/her from making the usual type of accompanied journey.

We also provide discretionary travel support for:

children under 5 with special educational needs or disabilities travelling to nurseries or primary schools.
young people over the age of 16 with special education needs accessing further education

The support could be provided in one of the following ways:

Personal Travel Budget (PTB)
A travel permit for public transport
Transport to and from school in a mini-bus, people carrier or taxi. All vehicles will have the necessary adaptations for the specific needs of the child.

The team that delivers this service is called the SEND travel support team.