On the 29th September 2005 I had the opportunity to put a question to the Council on School transport for disabled children. I asked:
You are aware of the problems encountered by my constituents whose severely disabled son was informed on the Friday before returning to Ty Gwyn special school the following Monday, after the Summer break that his transport arrangements were being changed. Owing to my constituents impairments this enforced change, with no time for adjustment caused a considerable amount of distress. Can you assure me that this issue will be properly investigated and appropriate action will be taken as a result?
The response from Councillor Kelloway was:
School transport arrangements for children with special educational needs are reviewed annually.
Individual travel arrangements are made for over 700 children with special education needs each year and in the majority of cases they are made appropriately and in a timely manner.
The Schools and Lifelong Learning Service regrets that this year, for a variety of reasons, details of revised transport arrangements were not distributed until Wednesday 31 August. In most cases, this delay did not cause any problems for parents, but in a few cases insufficient time was left to enable parents to adjust to new arrangements.
Partly as a results of these events, officers of the Schools and lifelong Learning Service will now review the process for the annual review of school transport with headteachers of special schools. Together they will examine ways in which improvements may be made. A key consideration will be to seek to ensure that as much notice as possible is provided to parents of changes to school transport arrangements.
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