Home-to-School Transport: Children with SEND Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Education
Danny Beales
Main Page: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)Department Debates - View all Danny Beales's debates with the Department for Education
(2 days, 1 hour ago)
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Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing such an important debate. In my casework, I have been inundated with issues around special educational needs, and transport is a major factor. I will make two quick observations that I hope the Minister will reflect on in any review of the framework.
First, the nature of families today often does not reflect the assumptions of previous years. I have had cases where parents who co-parent and share equal custody across different boroughs are caught up in arguments between the two boroughs about who is the lead parent. The parents simply say, “We share custody 50:50, so we need mechanisms to overcome that barrier.”
Secondly, increasing numbers of families are in temporary accommodation outside their traditional borough, and they find it very hard to get continuity in school transport for their children. They still want them to go to their hard-fought-for special educational needs school, but that would require changes in transport, and authorities are slow to make them. I hope that the framework will reflect the increasing numbers of families who are, unfortunately, homeless and in temporary accommodation.