SCHOOL CONTRACTS CRISIS
HAVERING COUNCIL-FUNDED TAXI TRIPS FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS SET TO STOP
Council-funded taxi trips for SEN school children are set to end under town hall plans. Havering Council, which has a multi-million- pound budget deficit, is proposing to stop paying for taxis for SEN children and cut the number of bus journeys it funds. It has tabled a new transport policy that will prioritise the most “cost- effective” option, encourage car- pooling and promote direct payments so parents can “organise their own”. The council says it will also introduce “clear eligibility criteria” to “significantly reduce” how many school bus trips it funds.
Cabinet member for children, Oscar Ford, said the changes are part of the council’s “drive to control expenditure” by replacing taxi and bus costs with personal budgets that better meet childrens’ needs. The proposals will go out for public consultation before receiving final approval by cabinet at a later date. In 2022/23, the council spent £5.5m, double its budget, on transporting eligible children to school, often by taxi or bus, sometimes with the expense of a passenger assistant. The council spent £3.6m on taxis and buses in 2019/20. The council says it has experienced
a significant increase in the num- ber of residents with Education Health and Care Plans (ECHP), with the total jumping more than 60% to 2,189 between 2018 and 2022. A report on the proposed policy before cabinet set out a break- down of savings which the council hopes will add up to £1.4m over the next four years. The most expensive daily taxi charge is for 16m/day, with a passenger assistant, costing £45,000 per school year. Under the new policy: fuel reimbursement or an Uber trip would cost £30 per day, costing about £5,500 per year.
STOKE FIRM BLAMES COUNCIL SHORTCOMINGS AS KIDS MISS SCHOOL IN TRANSPORT CRISIS
A private hire firm has blamed ‘administrative shortcomings’ at a council - after children were left without transport to get them to and from school. Parents contacted Stoke-on-Trent Live to complain that their children have not been to school this term as Stoke-on-Trent City Council (STCC) has not provided transport. Some of them had been told that Autocab Private Hire Taxis would be providing the service. But Autocab says it has no records of some of the children. One of the affected children, Carter Birks, 6, has missed the first eight days of school after not being able to get transport. Now Autocab has linked the current crisis to the council slashing £570,000 from its school transport budget for the 2023/24 academic year.
PHTM OCTOBER 2023
Autocab boss Waqas Yaqub said: “We have been receiving a significant volume of inquiries from concerned parents who have recently received correspondence from STCC regarding Autocab’s role in transporting their children for the latest academic term. “Regrettably, in several instances, we did not have any correspon- dence from the council regarding these students, necessitating us to direct these parents back to the council for clarification. “In my assessment, the challenges currently being confronted can be traced back
to administrative
shortcomings within the council. “Our organisation has proudly served as a provider for home-to- school transportation since 2016, and I can attest that such disarray has not previously been observed.
“I would like to emphasise that this situation should not be attributed to the personnel responsible for managing transport requests. They are operating under considerable constraints, grappling with an overwhelming volume of routes with limited personnel, and it’s my conviction that the root cause lies solely with senior decision-makers at the city council. “It is worth noting that this year has seen a comprehensive re- structuring of the home-to-school transportation framework, neces- sitated by budgetary reductions amounting to
£570,000, as
announced in January 2023. “The council is striving to make these cuts feasible, and unfortun- ately, it seems that the needs of children with SEN are being adversely impacted.”
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