Imagine for a second that it’s a busy weekday morning. You’re getting your young children ready for school while also trying to get yourself dressed and out the door in time for work.

Now imagine that there is a knock at the door. On the doorstep is a total stranger, who says they are here to take your children to school.

Most parents would not even consider handing their child over to a stranger who turned up at their door - and yet parents of children with SEND are often expected to do just that.

Children who attend special schools throughout the UK often travel for a considerable time on school transport. They can be as young as two. And I believe that the transport services they use, organised by local authorities throughout England and Wales, are not up to scratch. The unreliability, lack of safe practice and disregard for the individual child’s needs mean that basic safeguarding principles are constantly undermined.

A new term may start and all the bus staff will be new, without parents being informed. Escorts come and go and bus contracts change.

Vulnerable children with special needs

I do not, for one second, believe that any one of us with “ordinary” children would be expected to hand our children or grandchildren over to someone we didn’t know in a taxi or minibus. But what is worse is that these children are not “ordinary”. They may require the oxygen that they carry with them whilst on that bus. They may need a social story to explain why a different route is being taken.

With the current approach, whereby children are effectively handed over to complete strangers, drivers will often have no knowledge of their needs or how to support those needs. This is happening in local authorities across the UK, and it needs an urgent review. Parents need more information about who is being allowed to drive their children to and from school and what training they have had in taking care of their needs.

The majority of the pupils who attend the school where I work have autism as a primary or secondary diagnosis. Some also have challenging behaviour, severe medical needs or profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). Children with PMLD rely entirely on adult support to survive. They are usually incontinent. They are often tube-fed. Communication is subtle and often occurs only through their eyes, as they cannot move their hands reliably to learn to sign, and cannot talk. Sometimes they are blind, too; sometimes they are deaf; and sometimes they require oxygen.

Sharing information

I believe that it should be part of the transport department’s policy in every authority to share information with parents and schools on the training undertaken by those travelling with pupils with special needs and to provide a timetable of training updates. The importance of the job that these people do - driving and escorting some of our most vulnerable pupils to and from school - cannot be undervalued.

This information should be made available to parents via secure access on a website dedicated to their children’s transport. The website should continually update parents on the people travelling with their children and their DBS status, and should display up-to-date photos of drivers. Every parent should have private online access to their child’s transport information.

I appreciate that this kind of service would require funding and effort to establish, but it doesn’t seem that much to ask. We wouldn’t allow a stranger to walk into a classroom and start teaching. So why do we allow them to drive children with SEND to school?

The writer is the headteacher of a special school

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