Leeds City Council has approved plans that will effectively remove home to school transport for all learners aged 16 – 19 with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities across the city from September 2025. We feel that this is targeting some of the most vulnerable members of society. Leeds City Council’s objective is that from 2025 parents and carers will be responsible for arranging their young person’s transport themselves and that transport will only be provided via Leeds City Council transport services in “exceptional circumstances”.
We are hoping to gather views that represent parents and carers across the City who have various concerns about these proposals, specific to their individual circumstances, however they include:
- The agreed proposals set out that for journeys of less than 3 miles there will be no support at all – disabled young people will be expected to walk/travel in their wheelchair, be driven by their parents/carers or use public transport. This may be possible and appropriate for some young people but there will be a large number who cannot safely walk 3 miles, or walk at all, or use public transport independently.
- For longer distances families will be offered a tiered travel allowance of £1000 for 3 – 10 miles, £2000 for 10 – 20 miles or £3000 for those travelling over 20 miles. For many families these allowances would not cover the fuel costs of taking their young person to school or college & back everyday, and even less so if there needed to be a Personal Assistant and a taxi. If parents or carers were forced to reduce their work hours or give up work entirely their loss in income would certainly not be covered by these proposed allowances.
- Travel training may be suitable for some young people but the range of needs for this group vary hugely and schools and colleges are often not in the local area or accessible by bus so this is often not a viable option. We have serious concerns about the safe-guarding risks involved in vulnerable young adults travelling on public transport alone.
- Preparation for adulthood is an essential component of Education, Health & Care Plans – the removal of young people’s transport and relying on parents and carers to take them to school is a regressive step.
- The Council carried out a consultation process about this policy – 62% of people who responded to the consultation disagreed with this proposal.
- Leeds prides itself on being a child friendly city, working with restorative practices. The policy targets some of the most vulnerable members of our community: disabled children and their parent carers, who already face substantial hurdles in accessing essential services.
Survey
We have created a survey to try to capture as many individual stories as possible – please do fill this in and give as much detail as possible about how these cuts would impact on your young person, on you as parents and carers, your wider family and on your financial circumstances! Please also share this with anyone else you think may be affected next year or in years to come – https://forms.office.com/e/kzPrGWgqA0
DEAL
The link for the DEAL Facebook group is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371317873715612?locale=en_GB
Online Petition
There is also an online petition now standing at nearly 1000 signatures – please do sign and share: https://chng.it/XYF8sMnZZT
Template Wording
Please see below for some template wording that you could copy into an email or write as a letter to your local councillor – you can find out how to contact them here: https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/mgFindMember.aspx ( you can search by your home postcode and then if you click on the link under their photo it will bring up their contact details).
Dear (name of councillor/s)
I hope this email/letter finds you well.
I am writing as a very concerned parent of (give brief details of your child or young person – age and additional need or disability)
I understand that recently the Executive Board of Leeds City Council have approved plans that will effectively remove vital home to school, or college, transport for hundreds of post 16 learners with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities across the city.
With proposals being that for journeys of less than 3 miles there will be no support at all but young people will be expected to walk, be driven by their parents or carers or use public transport. This may be possible and appropriate for some young people but there will be a large number of young people who cannot safely walk 3 miles, or walk at all, or use public transport independently.
The next tier of proposals offer a Personal Travel Allowance of £1000 for learners travelling between 3 to 10 miles for their education, £2000 for learners travelling 10 – 20 miles for their education or £3000 for those travelling over 20 miles.
For many families these allowances would not cover the fuel costs of taking their young person to school or college & back everyday, and even less so if there needed to be a Personal Assistant and a taxi for instance. If parents or carers were reducing work hours or giving up work their loss in income would certainly not be covered by these proposed allowances.
(You could add something here about your own specific circumstances and how the cuts would affect you and your family)
Travel training may be suitable for some young people but the range of needs for this group of young people vary hugely and often schools and colleges are not in the local area for a young person so this is not always a viable option.
Given that there is a high value placed on preparation for adulthood in Education, Health & Care Plans, for example, I find it difficult to understand how being taken to school or college by a parent or carer is preparing for adulthood or independence?
I have looked through the supporting information and the outcome of the consultation process shows that even the proposal with the highest level of agreement only had 24% of people in agreement and 61% disagreed or strongly disagreed. For the proposal that has been agreed, 62% of people who responded to the consultation disagreed – how has this information informed the decisions that have now been made?
Leeds is supposed to be a child friendly city, working with restorative practices – I find it very hard to see how either of these ‘passions’ have been applied to this decision.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you further and would ask for your guidance on how we can make representation for this decision to be reconsidered before it goes before the full council for ratification.
With many thanks
Kind regards
Your name
Your contact details – phone or email
We really do want to hear your voices so we can raise these concerns with Leeds City Council in the hope that they review and reverse this policy decision.
