Questions and Answers - SEND school transport in Hull

Does my son/Daughter have to attend a special school to be eligible for free transport?

No, your son/daughter does not need to be in a special school. Transport eligibility is independent of the type of school or whether the child has an EHC plan. The local authority must make transport arrangements for all children who cannot reasonably be expected to walk to school because of their mobility problems or because of associated health and safety issues related to their special education needs (SEN) or disability.

What if my child can’t walk to school and needs transport assistance?

If your child has an education, health, and care plan (EHCP), this will normally be picked up through your child's statutory assessment and then considered annually as part of the review process.

If your child does not have an education, health, and care plan (EHCP) and is unable to walk due to a medical condition, you must provide written medical evidence. If the information given indicates this is not a permanent condition, we will review it on an annual basis (or more frequently, if necessary) and will ask you to provide additional information when we review it.

What is a reasonable travelling distance and travelling time?

A reasonable walking distance means any distance up to the statutory walking distance of three miles for pupils over the age of 8 and up to two miles for pupils under 8 years old.

A reasonable travelling time by public transport means a journey of not more than an hour and a quarter each way for secondary age pupils and 45 minutes each way for primary age pupils. These times may be extended in some exceptional circumstances, and in some instances, due to roadworks for example, journey times may be longer.

The travelling times may differ for pupils attending special schools or alternative provisions due to the small number of schools across the authority.

How do you measure the minimum home to school travelling distance?   

Residence is defined as the normal family address where the child resides. The qualification date is the closing date for applications under the co-ordinated admissions scheme. (Where families change normal address after the closing date but before the allocation process has commenced this can be considered under the review procedure).

Where parents live at separate addresses and have joint custody, the address used will be the one where the child spends the main part of the school week (i.e., Sunday night to Thursday night inclusive). Childcare arrangements involving relatives’ addresses do not qualify as normal family addresses for this purpose unless there is a court Residence Order in place.

Distance measurement for the 2- and 3-mile statutory walking distances.

The distance measured is the shortest available route from the point at the child’s normal place of residence where the child joins the public road network (for example, the front gate) to the nearest approved entry point to the school site. (The exception to this is Bricknell Primary School also includes the maintained footpath along St Ninian’s Walk for access to the school, to Kelvin Hall School is the footbridge across the railway line from Priory Drive, via a public footpath to Hotham Road North and East Park from Hawkesbury Street to James Reckitt Avenue for access to Malet Lambert School)

Please be aware that routes from home to school are regularly reviewed by the local authority to incorporate newly identified routes into the electronic mapping system used for measuring. If a route from home to school is re-measured, and found to be under the qualifying distance, free home to school transport will be withdrawn.

The distance will be measured on a computerised GIS mapping system using Ordnance Survey information. The courts have defined an ‘available route’ as one “along which a child accompanied as necessary can walk with reasonable safety to school. It does not fail to qualify as ‘available’ because of dangers which would arise if the child were unaccompanied.

The guidelines produced by the Local Authority Road Safety Officers Association will be used to determine whether or not a route is an available home to school walking route.

In determining the availability of the route, the Authority will take into account any restrictions on a parent’s ability to accompany their child imposed by any disability the parent may have.

Will we have the same driver and assistance throughout my child's time at school?

At times throughout the contract, changes will occur, including adding or removing pupils.  We understand that it can be difficult for a child or young person to manage a change, but unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the diver or PA will remain the same due to staff turnover, sickness or leave. We will work with school, parents, and operators to manage this change the best we can.

Will you provide a Passenger Assistant?

With the exception of primary aged children, we do not normally provide passenger assistants for children of statutory school age; the Transport Panel will however review all requests taking into consideration the child’s special medical or behavioural. If your child has special medical needs, we will require a health care plan to be in place before we can transport your child.

What is the Transport Panel?

The Transport Panel considers applications for home to school transport for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities and applications for adults (post-19), that don’t meet the eligibility criteria laid down in the SEN home to school Transport Policy.

Post-19 Learner cases will be managed by Adult Service’s High Needs Team and applications seen as exceptions to the rule, which require further consideration, will form part of the Transport Panel’s agenda as necessary.

The Transport Panel will consider the following factors when assessing transport applications:

• Eligibility criteria as set out in the Council’s Home to School Transport Policy
• Distance from home to school/college
• Age of pupil residing in Hull
• School attended – nearest suitable school/catchment school taken to mean the nearest qualifying school with places available that provides education appropriate to age, ability and aptitude of the child, and SEN.
• Length of journey
• Ability to travel to school alone or accompanied either by walking, cycling, or using public transport
• Whether the parent/carer has a disability which makes it unreasonable for them to accompany their child or young person to school/college
• Exceptional circumstances, identified by the parent/Carer.
• Requests for Personal Transport Budgets, whether this is an efficient use of council funds; and whether an alternative mode of transport could be utilised that meets the needs of the child/young person.
• Opportunities for the YP to develop independent travel skills, i.e., travel training

What is a Personal Transport Budget – PTB.

If approved by the Transport Panel, the Personal Transport budget allows families to have the freedom and flexibility to make their own travel arrangements rather than travelling on transport organised by the council. The transport panel consider all applications. Payments are made monthly and can be withdrawn for non-attendance. PTB’s are reviewed annually.

My son/daughter goes to the only post-16 school that can meet his needs, but I must pay for his transport. Are we entitled to help?

Legally, local authorities do not have to provide free transport for young people over 16 and can ask for parental contribution even if they were getting free transport previously. The issue of the setting being the only suitable place for your son/daughter is irrelevant to this.

Details of transport charging should be set out in the local authority policy. The amount should be reasonable and in line with travel costs for young people in the area without special education needs or disabilities. The contribution should also be affordable for low-income families. Arrangements should give details about any help available with travel costs, who is eligible, and how to apply. Our post-16 transport page has more information about this.