Concerns raised over council changes to children’s Send transport budgets

Councillors in Haringey have agreed draft changes to the authority’s school transport policies for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).

The draft policy updates are designed to provide a “more detailed account of how decisions are made” and “ensure that there is less confusion and misinformation in the community”, according to the council.

They include changes to the calculation of personal travel budgets, which are designed to provide financial help for parents to make transport arrangements for their children if the free bus service is unsuitable.

Liberal Democrat opposition leader Luke Cawley-Harrison and Send campaigner Brian Leveson, who blogs as ‘The Difficult Parent’, have raised a series of concerns over the policies – including whether parents with personal travel budgets will be able to afford transport if fuel costs increase.

The updated draft policies, which underwent a twelve-week public consultation during the summer, were presented to a meeting of the council’s cabinet on Tuesday.

Zena Brabazon, cabinet member for children, schools and families, told the meeting: “I think this has been one of the most extensively consulted policies in the council. I know there were four online sessions […] and I know that letters went out to all families, people were invited to comment, and I think there is a lot in the papers showing the response to those comments.”

Speaking after Cllr Brabazon, Cllr Cawley-Harrison asked if inflation would be taken into account when personal travel budgets are allocated, as rising costs meant they could quickly become out of date.

The opposition leader also said the council had told parents that consultation responses would be released in September and the cabinet decision would be taken in November. He asked if the parents would have time to scrutinise the responses and take part in a promised question-and-answer session.

Jacqueline Difalco, the council’s assistant director of early help prevention and Send, said personal travel budgets would “evolve over time” and it was “something we will have to consider going forward”, but she admitted she did not have an answer to the inflation question “now”.

She acknowledged that the council said it intended to publish the outcome in September but claimed this was an “anomaly” that had been “rectified immediately”. The question-and-answer session would go ahead, Jaqueline added.

Cllr Cawley-Harrison also raised concerns over a section of the policy which states that a child is only eligible to receive travel assistance from the council if they are attending their nearest suitable or qualifying school – otherwise parents would have to make their own arrangements.

The opposition leader asked if officers were satisfied this was lawful in light of a court case brought against Dudley Council in 2012. Jacqueline replied that she believed the policies were lawful, but officers would check and respond to him at a later date.

Further changes to the council’s policies include introducing behaviour standards to ensure children and young people are kept safe, and cut-off dates for applications to “reduce disruption to the service and inform effective planning”.

Cabinet members agreed to approve the draft policies, which may undergo minor amendments before they are formally adopted.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Brabazon said that for families with personal transport budgets, “any policy changes to those arrangements will be applied to best meet the needs of the individuals concerned and their families in a consistent, equitable and fair manner”.

She added: “Fuel costs are among the numerous factors considered when determining the amount of financial support each child or young person is entitled to and mileage rates are reviewed in line with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs guidance.”

Cllr Brabazon said a parent-carer briefing on the new policy would take place after the October half-term holidays, and details would be provided via the council’s local offer web pages and Send newsletter.