Disabled parents and school

Savvy_Sue

GlasweJen wrote: »

A local authority is required to provide transport to children who live 2 or more miles away from their school (high school, I think it's 1 mile for primary)

I think it's 3 miles for secondary school, and 2 for primary.

lindos90 wrote: »

Im not assuming that sorry for any confusion. Going to school and back twice per day, is four journeys per day altogether. Apologies if the way I worded it was not clear. Why would you assume that Im assuming the child comes home for lunch?

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You don't pay a return fare for a taxi. Sending a child to school in one would be two single journeys.

As others have said, the child does not have to be accompanied: one of my nephews was picked up by taxi as they lived out in the sticks, and no-one went with him! So it's only 2 journeys per day.

Mum might WANT to go with the child, but that's not something the LA has to pay for.

daska

When the child is disabled the LA might (but not always) have to provide transport. When it's the parent who's disabled it's a completely different story, the only requirement is to conform with the human rights act which can be 'interpreted' in many different ways.

I've already been told that my local council do not provide funding for any disabled parents to get their child/ren to school. I've mentioned above, none of my local taxi firms will accept an unaccompanied child as a fare and they / SS / parentpartnership / surestart etc couldn't suggest an alternative route.

I'm waiting a call back from the Licensing team but I've already been told that they only deal with contracts not ad-hoc, so I'm back to either spending money I literally don't have for an every day service or a potentially very erratic attendance based on my health.

p.s. the "well you should think about these things before you get pregnant" doesn't apply in my case

Oldernotwiser

daska wrote: »

Only if the taxi firm will take unaccompanied children. Please feel free to ring a few and see how many decline to accept the fare.

You need to find the taxi firm that has the contract for taking children to school; every area has one.

Savvy_Sue

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You need to find the taxi firm that has the contract for taking children to school; every area has one.

they may have the contract, but they may still decline to take an unaccompanied child as an uncontracted fare, and they may also be working at full capacity at school run times and decline on that basis.

sunnyone

The problem where we live is that all the taxis are already booked for school runs so there are none available at the time when I have needed them for my son but luckily I have a mate with a taxi firm who can help for the few occasions I have needed transport for him to school.

There are also no buses from our village to his school or the college he attends twice a week but i knew all of this when we decided to buy this house and to enrol him in his school.

Daska I didnt have a choice with my eldest child because she was 3 when I had my accident but I certainly did before I had my youngest and I took everything into account before choosing to have a second child, every adult has to weigh up wether to have a child or not and if you are disabled you need to work out how you are going to manage and not wait until you have one in school then decide you need help when you have had the same condition all of your life.

Nor do you wait until the benefit system changes to give you the allowance needed to provide you with the means to take your child to school when that was never even mooted till two years ago

daska

sunnyone wrote: »

Daska I didnt have a choice with my eldest child because she was 3 when I had my accident but I certainly did before I had my youngest and I took everything into account before choosing to have a second child, every adult has to weigh up wether to have a child or not and if you are disabled you need to work out how you are going to manage and not wait until you have one in school then decide you need help when you have had the same condition all of your life.

Nor do you wait until the benefit system changes to give you the allowance needed to provide you with the means to take your child to school when that was never even mooted till two years ago

Fair comment if the disability was forseeable but as I stated earlier, that criticism doesn't apply in my case.

And this isn't about cost - except to the extent that I can't afford to pay for a daily contract and eat - but the Hackney office haven't come up with anyone who'll take the fare on an irregular basis.

So the assertions on this thread that "it's only 2 single journeys a day" and that the "LA will pay" are totally inaccurate.

Richie-from-the-Boro

daska,

Why irregular ? no one, no driver will do a school run unless its regular, drivers as you have found are fully occupied and will do your normal 5 dpw / pc regular run for you under contract. No driver is going to throw away a school run @ £2800 per annum plus VAT for your offer of as~and~when~you~feel~like~it. I'm confused why is your child school attendance irregular ?

BTW and escorted child will treble the £3k pa ! to £9k pa

Savvy_Sue

I don't think daska's child attends school irregularly, I think she doesn't need help / a taxi every day. Could be wrong, of course ...

PudseyDB

I havent read the whole thread (so sorry if what I say sounds rubbish!), but have you spoken to someone at school to see if they have any suggestions. At our infants theres someone who deals with parent support and child attendance and I know she's arranged to pick children up herself when parents have had injuries, illness, etc. Obviously it depends how far away you live from school - most of the kids at ours are fairly local anyway.

Other ideas - do any other children from the school go past your house to school everyday? Could your daughter perhaps walk with them?

Personally I wouldnt be happy to send a 6 yr old in a taxi alone each day. What happens if the usual driver is ill?

daska

Those are other ideas to explore as and when possible, but to clarify, DS is due to start school in September and we're waiting to hear which school - hence not being able to explore them yet. He's also lagging behind in his development though no specific 'cause' as yet decided on so it is vitally important to me that things are as 'routine' as they can be as any deviation tends to throw him out of sorts. As things stand at the moment I am extremely lucky to have managed to organise a live in carer but budgets change and people move on (in this case I'm lucky that my carer has delayed her original plans and agreed to stay with me but this will probably only be for another few months) and I know that it is unlikely that I will be able to replace her. I'm not allowed to use any of my personal budget towards transport because I get HRM. I can use my budget for carers but, having done the math, it's obvious I can't afford the hours to use a carer to get him up and to school and back - again, that's because it would have to be a 5 day a week commitment rather than as and when necessary which would mean no support at weekends - I already pay for some care out of other income, I'm not expecting a.n.other to pick up every penny. And as to the erratic, that's because there are days when it would be impossible/unsafe for me to take him on my own and as a responsible parent I am attempting to identify solutions before the problem actually arises. And no, I wouldn't be 'happy' at sending DS to school on his own in a taxi, but I'd rather that than have him miss school.