Why can't my SEND child take the bus with friends?

The mother of a child with severe disabilities said her son cannot understand why he can no longer travel to school on a bus with his friends.

Conor, who lives in Flitwick, Bedfordshire, was previously picked up by a bus that took him to his special needs school, but the route has changed and his mother said no suitable alternative transport has been offered.

His mother, Lisa, no longer has the use of a car so Conor is stranded at home.

Central Bedfordshire Council said it remained willing to discuss alternative transport arrangements with Conor's family.

Conor loves sport and even has his own YouTube channel, which tells the story of his visits to big sporting events.

He has met some of his heroes such as Jonny Wilkinson and Brian O'Driscoll and enjoys watching the action, but he cannot talk about it.

He has a rare genetic condition called Mowat-Wilson syndrome, and, like many people with the same condition, he is non-verbal.

He also has reduced mobility, epilepsy and behavioural issues.

Lisa describes him as "basically like a toddler in a 12-year-old's body".

For many years, Conor has travelled to his special school on a council-run bus with about 10 other children.

His mother said: "He absolutely loved it. The staff that were on the bus with him would say 'he's literally giggled all the way home with his friends'.

"It was probably one of the best parts of his day, to be honest."

Everything changed on the first day of term last year, when he waited on the doorstep in his school uniform, but the bus did not come.

Eventually, it transpired that Conor's house was no longer on the bus route.

His mother had to drive him to school - a round trip of around 64 miles (103km), which takes about two-and-a-half hours each day.

Lisa said: "Every day, we had to walk past where the buses are all parked up.

"If his bus is there, he can't understand why he can't get on the bus with his friends. It's heartbreaking."

Conor's reaction to the bus he cannot ride on has sometimes been a meltdown, which can include biting his mother or pulling her hair.

The council suggested Lisa send Conor to school in a taxi, but she said she was not prepared to send "my vulnerable child in a taxi with complete strangers. It's completely inappropriate."

Conor's family took the council to appeal, and the panel concluded that he needed a place on a council bus with other children.

The council offered a seat on a college bus, but that would have meant him arriving late at school and leaving early, losing around eight hours of classroom time each week.

He has also lost some of his speech and language therapy at a time when he has been trying to learn how to use an electronic gadget which speaks his sentences for him.

Lisa said: "Effectively, the council are taking his voice away and that voice is his future."

She does not want Conor to miss school as he was "absolutely thriving there and he loved it.

"Conor should be able to have an education and they're depriving him of that."

A spokesperson for Central Bedfordshire Council said: "While we cannot comment on the details of an individual child's circumstances, we want to reassure families that decisions about school transport are made with children's safety, wellbeing and individual needs in mind.

"In this case, the council has continued to offer alternative school transport arrangements and remains willing to discuss these with the family.

"We take concerns raised by families seriously and remain committed to working with them to find safe and suitable arrangements that enable children to attend school."

Government guidance states that children may be entitled to free transport if they cannot walk to school because of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

It also warns that "any transport your council provides must be suitable to your child's needs".

But the annual cost of special buses, taxis or mileage subsidies is expected to reach £3.4bn by 2030, a five-fold increase in the amount spent on the same service in 2015.

Cash-strapped councils are saying they simply cannot afford to foot the ever-increasing bill for transport.

Central Bedfordshire Council spends about £12m on SEND transport each year.

Neighbouring Hertfordshire County Council spent £33m on getting pupils with SEND to and from school in 2024-25 year, the eighth highest amount in the country.

The authority announced this year that it would be providing 650 more places in SEND units at mainstream schools, which will reduce the spend on transport as the places will often be closer to children's homes than those at special schools.

But more radical ideas will be needed in the future, which might involve difficult decisions about the extent to which councils can be expected to provide services that exactly fit the needs of every individual child.

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