Union calls for Leicester city council SEND transport consultation to be re-run

A union has claimed that a consultation exercise run by Leicester City Council on cutting post-16 special educational needs (SEND) transport was inadequate and must be re-run. Unison claimed the council announced the plans to implement "significant cuts" to the service after a "deeply flawed" consultation process held more than two years ago.

It said the proposals formed part of a "worrying trend" of SEND cuts which it claimed were implemented with "little meaningful consultation with those most affected, in this case, the students themselves, and their families". It claimed that Leicester City Council had "repeatedly ignored" its offer to work with it to campaign for more funding from the Conservative government to save struggling public services.

In response to the claims, a city council spokesperson said the authority had carried out a three-month consultation which included writing to all parents and carers with a child over 14 who had an education health care plan (EHCP), that the proposals were shared with headteachers, the local parent carer forum, and the Big Mouth forum which is made up exclusively of young people with special educational needs. As a result, it said, it would not be re-running the consultation.

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Unison claimed the decision to withdraw the funding was made following a consultation held in 2021. At the time, it said, the council sought views from more than 700 affected families, and received nine responses, or 1.2 per cent. It claimed that none of the responses came from SEND students themselves, who, it said, were "seemingly not included" in the discussion, with correspondence being targeted only at parents and/or carers.

It also claimed the consultation was targeted at families who were in the SEND transport system at the time it was run. Now, more than two years later, additional families required SEND transport and had not had the same opportunity to express their views, it said. The union further claimed the content of the consultation was "deficient", claiming none of the questions asked "even touched on the core issue of whether or not the changes would prevent or impede post-16 SEND students from accessing education".

Unison said those alleged flaws "seriously undermined the conclusions drawn from the consultation, and cast doubt upon exactly what the impact of the changes would be". The union declared it was calling upon the council to run another, "more comprehensive" consultation, and maintain current funding levels while it was ongoing.

Parents who have been fighting plans by Leicester City Council to cut SEND transport for students aged 16-19 agreed with the union's claim that consultation on the proposals was inadequate. Parents Steve Score and Lisa Crabbe have been active in organising protests with parents and a petition against the cuts. Mr Score added the campaign had grown to involve many more parents and students as well as other supporters. It follows an announcement earlier this year by then assistant city mayor for education Councillor Vi Dempster that the "difficult decision" to end school transport funding for young people over 16 with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) had been made as a result of massive Government cuts to Leicester city council funding and huge rises in the cost of social care. She said there would be exceptions to the policy and that council officials were working their way through a number of requests for transport for students aged 16-19.

Tom Barker, a Unison steward at Ash Field Academy, said: “The actions of Leicester City Council threaten to prevent SEND students from being able to attend school – something which is a statutory requirement." He added: "At the very least, the council needs to re-run the consultation in a more comprehensive way, so that it can properly understand the true impact of these changes before making a final decision. We need to develop a serious strategy to prevent vital services like these from being cut, but once again Leicester City Council is claiming there is nothing to be done.”

Parent Mr Score, whose son Ben wrote to councillors about the problems the transport changes would cause for friends who attend his special needs school, said: "The only thing I would add to Unison's statement about the failure of consultation that took place more than two years ago is that the council says it wrote only to parents of children who were then 14 years old and above. But many families of students who will now be impacted by this were not in fact consulted as they were not 14 then. They did not know about the change until the end of January this year. The council should think again. At least delay the implementation for a year to discuss further with everyone involved about a heartless cut that will be devastating for many vulnerable children."

A city council spokesman said: “We carried out a three-month consultation exercise which included writing to all parents and carers with a child over 14 years-old who had an Education and Care Plan, not just those already using post-16 SEND transport. The proposals were also shared with headteachers, the Local Parent Carer Forum, and The Big Mouth Forum which is made up exclusively of young people with special education needs. The policy change was then clearly displayed on the council’s web pages about SEND transport.

“Although we extended the funding beyond April when it was due to finish, to the end of the summer term, the policy is in place and has been implemented, so there will be no further consultation.

“Due to years of Government cuts to our funding, we will find it very hard next year to fund any service that is not legally required of us. If the Government decided to make it mandatory for councils to provide this funding, it would also have to pay for it as a new financial burden, which we would welcome. At present there is no indication this will happen.”

A protest against the cuts is taking place in Town Hall square from 4.30pm to 5.30pm tomorrow, Thursday, May 16.