I want to know how South Tyneside Council will teach my daughter with SEND to travel independently
A South Shields mum has called out South Tyneside Council’s handling of changes to post-16 SEND transport.
Tracy Wilson-Gray, from South Shields, is calling on South Tyneside Council to set out how they will teach her daughter to travel independently following changes made to post-16 SEND home to school transport.
Proposals relating to the future of ‘home to education’ transport for SEND pupils in South Tyneside were discussed by the Council’s cabinet on March 19.
The local authority has has historically paid for eligible post-16 SEND young people to travel to their place of education free of charge, despite there being no requirement to offer free or subsidised provision.
Now due to increasing pressures on the service and large budget overspends, South Tyneside Council is proposing that some families should pay a “contribution charge” towards travel costs - equating to £1,069.20 per child per year.
Tracy, whose 17-year-old daughter goes to college, is asking South Tyneside Council how they plan on training her daughter to be able to independently travel in time for September when she hasn’t been able to for the last five years.
The 52-year-old said: “We’ve fought for her to get access to things like transport right the way through her education. She has had the transport since she was in Year 8 and without that, we would never have gotten her into school.
“Working with the Council’s SEND team, and the school that she was at, has helped to provide her with the skills to be able to manage going into college but she can’t travel independently.
“We’ve tried to get her to travel independently for five years and it is too much for her.
“My understanding is the Council only have two independent travel trainers who focus on the borough’s specialist provision.
“The Council’s report says that this training will be offered but I want to know how they are going to train my daughter in the space of six months when I haven’t been able to do it in five years.
“Then the question remains about how they are going to do this with 105 children.”
Tracy has also queried South Tyneside Council’s pricing of the transport and hit out at a councillor’s comments stating the the SEND transport “plunges young people into adulthood”.
She added: “The SEND team have told me that the transport will cost around £20 per week over the course of each term.
“So there are 35 weeks in my daughter’s academic year and the cost works out at around £700, so why are South Tyneside Council wanting more than £1,000 off us?
“I know the report makes reference to it being the equivalent of a bus pass but my daughter doesn’t go to college five days a week so you can’t base it on that.
“I’m also absolutely raging at Cllr McHugh’s comments, she doesn’t know our children and she certainly doesn’t know my child.
“To come out with a discriminatory comment saying that young people with SEND are ‘just plunging into adulthood’, I would like to know what she means by that.
“It is disgusting for a councillor to talk that way about anybody, never mind a child with SEND.”
South Tyneside Council has stated that it has enhanced its independent travel training service and the £1,069 is a flat rate it is asking families to contribute towards the cost of SEND transport.
A spokesperson for the local authority said: “We are asking that some families pay a contribution towards the costs of the Council to transport SEND young people to sixth form, further education or college.
“We are one of few councils that still fully funds home to education transport for post 16 SEND learners.
“The average cost to the council is £6,194.29 per individual. The flat rate contribution of £1,069 that we are requesting from families is around a sixth of the cost and works out at around £20 per week per student.
“The council would still be paying more than 80 per cent of the overall cost.
“We are targeting our resources towards those who need it most and reshaping services in a way that also helps to promote more independence and prepare our SEND young people for adulthood.
“If we don’t do this before Council support ceases, many of our SEND young people would leave school or college with little to no experience of independent travel.
“We have enhanced our Independent Travel Training (ITT), supporting more of our SEND young people to gain the confidence and skills needed to travel safely and independently now and in future.
“We appreciate that change is unsettling. We also understand that some families may choose not to use taxis going forward and acknowledge that ITT is not right for all young people.
“Our SEND service continues to support families on alternative solutions that best meet the needs of individual students.”
For more details on the support available in South Tyneside, visit: https://sendlocaloffer.southtyneside.gov.uk/.
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