There are times when a person could reasonably assume that they have disappeared into some sort of rabbit hole. Any minute now they are going to wake up and find out that it was all a dream - either that, or everything is not quite as it seemed.

It happened to me yesterday while I was watching the Budget. There I was, digesting my lunch, and there it was. Almost a throwaway line, a soundbite to please the newspapers.

In a Budget that “works for everyone”, no child would be limited by their background.

From his position at the despatch box, the chancellor said: “Talent, not economic circumstance, should determine the opportunities a child enjoys.” When the new grammar schools come into existence, children who are on free school meals (FSM) will get free transport to them, up to 15 miles away from their home.

I was surprised, I have to admit, in these days of austerity, because transport costs are one of the biggest budgetary considerations for the education departments of local authorities (I even read somewhere that they can cost more than provision itself) - and they are looking for every little way they can to pinch the pennies, even when it impacts on the most vulnerable of learners.

Increasingly, the families of young people with learning disabilities, the kind of young people, like my son, who need a bit of extra help in getting around safely, are being expected to both organise transport for the young person themselves, and cough up a contribution to the cost.

I know this, because it is happening in Gloucestershire, where I live, to families I know; to my son’s friends.

You would think that the law would have it covered. You would think it would be a no-brainer. Young people with learning difficulties, taking their first baby steps into the adult world are going to need a bit of help. You don’t have to be an expert in SEND to know this.

Systems are already in place for transport for younger SEND learners who attend special schools. But there is nothing illegal, or even untoward about cutting the help and bringing in a charge.

In the transport guidance from the government it says: “Local authorities can ask [families] to make a contribution, but it must be reasonable,” even though it qualifies the advice with, “any contribution from families of the learning disabled needs to reflect the longer commitment faced by families.”  

When it comes to post-16 transport for learners with SEND, it seems that there is, indeed, a bit of a problem.

Like those children who fall into the gap between mainstream and special school, too academic to be satisfied in the special sector, too different to fit comfortably into mainstream, the transport requirements of post-16 learners with SEND (mostly learning disability) fall into a legal loophole, despite local authorities having a duty under the Education and Skills Act 2008 to “encourage, enable and assist the participation of young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities up to the age of 25 in education and training”. 

This cut is despite the well known link between SEND and poverty, and the well known vulnerabilities of people with special needs. 

I shouldn’t be surprised.

I have listened to education ministers for long enough to know that despite Edward Timpson’s protestations that SEND must be at the heart of education policy, at the Whole School SEND Summit only two weeks ago, I know that improving the life chances of the most disadvantaged, through timely and appropriate support isn’t the top priority. 

Excellence, choice and bathing in the glory of our brightest and best, resting in the satisfaction that we have rescued the bright poor by helping them to help themselves and patting ourselves on the back for doing so; this is the story that drives the decisions.

Those other ones, the ones we ignore when we strut the soundbites of social mobility, we would rather they didn’t exist.

But to live in a meritocracy, where talent and hard work bring their own rewards, there needs to be an equality of opportunity at the very least.

Children and young people of all kinds, from the bright poor to the disabled rich, deserve access to the best education we can create for them.

Children of all kinds, as well as being entitled to a vaired and interesting curriculum, deserve to find out about each other, to make friends across the divide.

Whichever way you spin it, to give to those deemed “deserving” with one hand and take away from the vulnerable with the other doesn’t look like equality to me. It looks like the same-old, age-old, class-ridden pretence.

Nancy Gedge is a consultant teacher for the Driver Youth Trust, which works with schools and teachers on SEND. She is the TES SEND specialist and author of Inclusion for Primary School Teachers and tweets@nancygedge

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