Agenda item

The Monitoring Officer to report on any questions, representations, or statements of case received.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any questions, representations or statements of case received in accordance with Council procedures.

Simon Thorpe to ask:

“How have 'exceptional circumstances' been decided, with regards to whether a 16+ young person with SEND is entitled to their EHCP specified transport, where is the visibility of this policy and the criteria that are 'exceptional circumstances'?

How have those young peoples' EHCPs where transport was or is now subsequently recorded as an 'exceptional circumstance' become as such? How is their 'exceptional circumstance' evidenced within the EHCP, under what section and via what instructions and by whom?

What is required in a young person's EHCP to evidence their transport need as an 'exceptional circumstance' and how is this need evidenced within the EHCP plan?

Under what criteria have some young people with physical, mental or social health need been offered either transport with a taxi or a personal transport budget, as opposed to others with similar or different physical, mental or social health need who have been refused transport with a taxi or a personal transport budget?

What are the criteria that some of the 'very few exceptional circumstances' will be offered either transport with a taxi or a personal transport budget, whereas some will be refused?

Finally, how is the 'capacity' of the young person to make an independent bus journey taken into account?”

Ruth Northey to ask:

Appeals against post-16 SEND transport decisions for the academic year 2024/5 are currently being decided upon prior to the publication of the new policy and appeals process. How can you guarantee a transparent and fair appeals process, especially given that I and other parents have been denied a second stage appeal with an independent panel which is recommended in statutory guidance?

Local authorities have to adhere to Post-16 transport and travel support guidance. This guidance states that they are should support the commissioning arrangements to make sure they maintain the requirements outlined in an EHCP. Distance to school must be considered. The council’s website currently states that a school being “out of area” is not considered an exceptional circumstance. In light of this, what arrangements are being made to follow statutory guidance and facilitate a child’s placement when this is some distance from the local area?

Esther Cameron to ask:

We as a group we also represent parents whose young people use the council provided yellow buses which are available to all age groups. We understand that the cuts are a cost-saving exercise, but those buses will still be running now without our children on board. By changing the policy on SEND Post-16 travel to school or college, please can you clarify how the savings are calculated?

When setting out your Post-16 transport policy, you are supposed to take into account the local transport infrastructure. In the case of my son, the destination

for his Post-16 course is an alternative education provider named in his EHCP and approved by Leicester City Council, but which is not served at all by public transport. Can you give details of your transport arrangement for children where their school is not accessible by public transport and parents are unable to provide transport themselves?

Lisa Crabbe to ask:

Local authorities have to adhere to Post-16 transport and travel support guidance. The guidance states that “the local authority must exercise its power to provide transport or financial support reasonably, taking into account all relevant matters”. The council’s website has a long list of individual circumstances which it states it will not consider when making transport decisions. There is no information on circumstances it will consider. How can the council demonstrate that in fact it is making reasonable decisions which take into account ALL relevant matters?

Recommendations have been made by the local authority to parents that their disabled post-16 children should travel independently to school. In some cases, the suggested public transport journeys involve 3-4 changes of transportation and take over the recommended maximum journey time. How is the local authority making decisions about the suitability of independent travel for individual young people, and can they demonstrate that they are taking into account the statutory guidance which states that journeys should not involve multiple changes or be over 75 minutes?

Stephen Score to ask:

The council says it has consulted on changes to Post-16 transport and travel support. Did that include parents/carers whose children are currently 16+ or will be 16-19 from the beginning of next term? How did you inform them of the consultation? How many responses did you get from parents/carers and how were the responses from parents considered as part of the decision-making process?

The Monitoring Officer reported that none had been received.

Simon Thorpe asked:

“How have 'exceptional circumstances' been decided, with regards to whether a 16+ young person with SEND is entitled to their EHCP specified transport, where is the visibility of this policy and the criteria that are 'exceptional circumstances'?

How have those young peoples' EHCPs where transport was or is now subsequently recorded as an 'exceptional circumstance' become as such? How is their 'exceptional circumstance' evidenced within the EHCP, under what section and via what instructions and by whom?

What is required in a young person's EHCP to evidence their transport need as an 'exceptional circumstance' and how is this need evidenced within the EHCP plan?

Under what criteria have some young people with physical, mental or social health need been offered either transport with a taxi or a personal transport budget, as opposed to others with similar or different physical, mental or social health need who have been refused transport with a taxi or a personal transport budget?

What are the criteria that some of the 'very few exceptional circumstances' will be offered either transport with a taxi or a personal transport budget, whereas some will be refused?

Finally, how is the 'capacity' of the young person to make an independent bus journey taken into account?”

Ruth Northey asked:

Appeals against post-16 SEND transport decisions for the academic year 2024/5 are currently being decided upon prior to the publication of the new policy and appeals process. How can you guarantee a transparent and fair appeals process, especially given that I and other parents have been denied a second stage appeal with an independent panel which is recommended in statutory guidance?

Local authorities have to adhere to Post-16 transport and travel support guidance. This guidance states that they are should support the commissioning arrangements to make sure they maintain the requirements outlined in an EHCP. Distance to school must be considered. The council’s website currently states that a school being “out of area” is not considered an exceptional circumstance. In light of this, what arrangements are being made to follow statutory guidance and facilitate a child’s placement when this is some distance from the local area?

Esther Cameron asked:

We as a group we also represent parents whose young people use the council provided yellow buses which are available to all age groups. We understand that the cuts are a cost-saving exercise, but those buses will still be running now without our children on board. By changing the policy on SEND Post-16 travel to school or college, please can you clarify how the savings are calculated?

When setting out your Post-16 transport policy, you are supposed to take into account the local transport infrastructure. In cases in which the Post-16 course is an alternative education provider named by the EHCP and approved by Leicester City Council, but which is not served at all by public transport, can you give details of your transport arrangement for children where their school is not accessible by public transport and parents are unable to provide transport themselves?

Lisa Crabbe asked:

Local authorities have to adhere to Post-16 transport and travel support guidance. The guidance states that “the local authority must exercise its power to provide transport or financial support reasonably, taking into account all relevant matters”. The council’s website has a long list of individual circumstances which it states it will not consider when making transport decisions. There is no information on circumstances it will consider. How can the council demonstrate that in fact it is making reasonable decisions which take into account all relevant matters?

Recommendations have been made by the local authority to parents that their disabled post-16 children should travel independently to school. In some cases, the suggested public transport journeys involve 3-4 changes of transportation and take over the recommended maximum journey time. How is the local authority making decisions about the suitability of independent travel for individual young people, and can they demonstrate that they are taking into account the statutory guidance which states that journeys should not involve multiple changes or be over 75 minutes?

Stephen Score asked:

The council says it has consulted on changes to Post-16 transport and travel support. Did that include parents/carers whose children are currently 16+ or will be 16-19 from the beginning of next term? How did you inform them of the consultation? How many responses did you get from parents/carers and how were the responses from parents considered as part of the decision-making process?

The Director of Education, SEND and Early Help gave the following response:

In response to the questions asked. I will be providing an overarching response to these questions.

The council’s Barrister has advised that as part of the Council’s Scrutiny Commission Constitution, information which could lead to the identification of individuals cannot be discussed in a public forum. Therefore, we are unable to provide answers relating to individuals.

The provision of transport of young people post-16 is not a statutory requirement. The ongoing pressures upon council budgets nationally has required us to review all our non-statutory services including the provision of travel support for young people over 16.

In 2021/22 (Oct-Jan) the council undertook a 3-month formal consultation exercise proposing changes to the home to college transport policy. This included withdrawing transport for young people over the statutory school age. A questionnaire was sent to all parents and carers with a young person over the age of 14 years with and Education an Health Care Plan. We also shared the proposal with the local Parent Carer Forum, Big Mouth Forum, and Head Teachers. All the responses received informed the final decision.

The report and outcome of the consultation exercise were shared with the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Commission on 8^th March 2022. A formal decision notice, report and outcome of the consultation were published on 25^th March 2022, agreeing to the changes to the policy, including the withdrawal of travel support for children and young people over the statutory age for education with effect from 1^st April 2022. However, at the time it was agreed that a 2-year transition period would be given to enable families, parents, and carers to make alternative arrangements. This agreement was due to expire on 1^st April 2024, however, to reduce the impact on individual students it was agreed the changes would be implemented at the end of the academic year 2024, which means 12^th July 2024.

Some children and young people with SEND may have transport included within their Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) linked to their health condition, that requires a specialist school setting that cannot be provided locally.  In these circumstances the council will honour the provision within the EHCP. For children and young people of statutory school age the council does have a duty to transport to school which is provided as required. For young people post-16 transport is not statutory and there is an expectation that parents/carers will support their young person to access their provision. Support for this is available through bursaries from Post-16 institutions and in addition Young People over the age of 16 may be eligible for a Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

Parents and carers with children and young people effected by the changes were written to at the beginning of February 2024 advising of the changes. The information also provided an email address to enable parents and carers to request exceptional circumstances if appropriate. The council has received a number of requests for exceptional circumstances, including a number from those who have submitted questions to this scrutiny commission. Due to the individual nature of each young person’s special needs every request has been considered individually by an expert panel. This panel consists of experienced and qualified SEND officers, who consider a range of evidence including the young person’s EHCP. The council has listed what is not exceptional circumstances on the council website.  Time and distance from home to school is not an exceptional requirement for Post 16 travel. Where an exceptional circumstance has been granted the council will allocate a Personal Transport Budget.

The updated Post-16 Transport Policy Statement will be published by 1^st April 2024, however the current Transport Policy Statement, available on the council website clearly states that the council intends to withdraw transport for Post-16 from the end of the academic year 2023/24. This policy will be used until the new policy is published.  Post-16 transport policy appeals (requests for exceptional circumstances) as described earlier will be dealt with by the panel. For Post-16 as it is discretionary it is a single stage appeal process. The mainstream home to school transport policy, which contains a two-step appeal process, applies only to young people under the age of 16.

Currently there are a significant number of post-16 young people that are transported on the councils’ yellow buses. Once this provision is withdrawn this will create additional space on the buses that can be allocated to children of statutory school age that are currently being transported to schools in expensive taxi provision.

The council is supportive of Post 16 education, and we work closely with all of the providers where we fund young people to ensure that they support their students to be prepared for adulthood including the provision of travel training.

Every request for an exceptional circumstance to date has already received a personalised response.

The Chair invited the members of the public to ask supplementary questions in which it was noted in response that:

• In the post-16 transport policy, it stated that exceptional circumstances would be considered by a panel.
• Regarding the publication of the policy surrounding the appeals process and the statutory guidance on post-16 transport, the guidance was decided at a local level and the policy was that exceptional circumstances would be considered by a panel of experts.
• The new policy would be published by 1^st April 2024.  The old policy was standing.  The guidance contained Frequently Asked Questions which gave examples of what would and wouldn’t be accepted as exceptional circumstances.  All information was considered by the panel. Each child was considered individually, and each case was given due process.
• Re-opening the decision would be an extremely long process and there would be a series of obstacles to doing this.  However, the process could be started with a new recommendation.  However, funding would need to be found and at the moment there was not sufficient funding.  The route of a judicial review was not available at this time as it needed to be based on the process in reaching the policy decision, which would need to happen within three months of the decision on the policy. However, the policy could be reconsidered if there was sufficient funding, however, there was not sufficient funding at this time.
• The budget for the next financial year had already been set and there had already been significant cuts to services.  Within the scope of next year’s budget, discretionary areas were at risk and needed to be considered.  This was a very regrettable set of circumstances.

The Chair informed the questioners that if they were not satisfied with the answers given, they could contact the relevant officers outside the meeting via email.