Oxfordshire parents demand independent review after children left without school transport for over half a term

Families have described being forced to drive for hours a day after their children with disabilities were stranded without transport this year.

Delays in the organisation of special educational needs (SEND) to-and-from school transport have affected hundreds of families and are ongoing, with cases continuing to go unresolved despite the County Council assurances they would be dealt with by the end of October.

Attending County Hall on Tuesday, November 3, Lauren Normanton, 43, described feeling “vulnerable” and “at the mercy of a system which clearly is not working”, after school transport for her 15-year-old son never appeared.

It had been in place for the last nine years, and she feels blamed for the situation after being told a deadline was missed for applying for it, an application she said she was never told about and had not been required in previous years.

Ms Normanton said that on Monday, November 2, she was finally able to speak to a “human” about the issue after repeated attempts to get in contact with the council, but does not feel closer to a resolution.

In the meantime, she has been driving her son, who has a range of needs, is non-verbal and has autism, a two-hour round trip to school.

Ms Normanton works one day a week and has been looking to increase her time in work.

She said that she has not been able to do so amid the transport situation and fears for the future.

“We want an apology” and “we want to know what happened”, the mother said as she questioned if there had been a “glitch”, and what was to prevent this from happening again next year.

Speaking on the issue in council, Claire Brenner, spokesperson for Oxfordshire SEND Parent Action Group, said: “Hundreds of children had no transport.

“Agreed transport was cancelled without warning, and nobody bothered to tell families.”

She said families were told they would be given information in August this year.

Ms Brenner said: “By the council’s own accounts, 70 to 80 of those heard nothing.

“That figure leaves out about 500 families whose application for non-processing was described as ‘late’.

“‘Late applications’ – many of these ‘late applications’ had been in place for years and were cancelled without warning.

“Many weren’t told they even had to reapply.

“So ‘late’ was the council’s word for this – by using that word, what you did was blame the parents.

“The council has promised every case to be resolved by half-term.”

She said this has not happened and “parents, mostly women, have to give up work because their children can’t go to school”.

She explained: “Some of their children have become so distressed by this they are unable to go back to school.

“Yesterday, one boy’s taxi finally turned up half a term late, and then it dropped him at the wrong school.

“He was left at reception, and no one called his family for hours.

“These process failures are breaking people.”

She wants an “independent inquiry” to find out about a council “data migration problem”, “how many ‘late applications’ were only made because of the Council’s failures”, school days lost, and how much money has been spent on school places which have not been used due to the issue.

Responding, county cabinet member for children and young people, Sean Gaul said: “Parents and carers asking for an apology from me, let me be clear, I have said that I’m sorry and I’ll continue to say that I’m sorry for every child and young person who has faced disruption in their education because their travel was not in place.”

He claimed that a combination of applications with “data migration issues, descent, school placements and tribunal decisions” and “some applications received after the published deadline”, amid “intense public, media and political scrutiny,” was “too much for the team to handle”.

He said work on next year’s travel arrangements will begin in January and that the council will “learn from this summer”.