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Report to:
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Lead Member for Education and Inclusion, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
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Date:
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13 September 2021 |
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By:
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Director of Children's Services |
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Title:
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Home to School Transport Policy review |
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Purpose:
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To consider the recommended changes to the home to school transport policies
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__________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION
The Lead Member is recommended to review and approve proposed amendments to the policies listed below:
· School transport policy · 16 to 19 SEND travel assistance policy · Post 19 SEND travel assistance policy __________________________________________________________________
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1. Background information
1.1 East Sussex County Council (the Council) has the following policies with regard to Home to School Transport provision:
· School transport policy - This is the overarching policy setting out the Council’s current home to school transport policy, with a focus on the transport the Council provides to mainstream pupils.
·
SEND (Special
Educational Needs and Disability) travel assistance policy for
statutory-aged pupils – Documents in more detail
provisions for the Council’s SEND clients.
·
16 to 19 SEND
travel assistance policy– Documents the home to
school transport provision provided to those aged 16 to 19 with
SEND and how their eligibility is assessed.
· Post 19 SEND travel assistance policy- Documents the home to school transport provision provided to those aged over 19 with SEND and how their eligibility is assessed.
1.2 The current policies above can be found on the County Council’s website:https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/educationandlearning/schools/transport/strategy/download/
1.3 The main statutory provisions relating to home to school transport are contained within s.508 of the Education Act 1996 and its subsections (as amended). The recommended review/appeals process is set out in statutory guidance: Home to school travel and transport guidance: statutory guidance for local authorities; July 2014; particularly at Annex 2. This can be found online at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance.
1.4 The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has powers under the Local Government Act 1974 to investigate complaints and issue reports concerning allegations of maladministration or service failure. Details of complaints made to the LGSCO are reported to members at Cabinet and Council meetings through the Council quarterly monitoring report. The Governance Committee also receives an annual customer services report which sets out the annual report received from the LGSCO.
1. 5 The LGSCO has considered the Council’s appeals process for handling applications for home to school transport. They have recommended that the following improvements are made to the appeals process. Set out below is a description of the current appeal process and the suggested revised process:
· Two stage appeal process: For SEND transport applications, the current process sets out that discretionary cases are first heard by the Inclusion Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (ISEND) Travel Panel consisting of officers. If applicants wish to appeal the decision, the next stage is currently a review by the Discretionary Transport Appeal Panel (DTAP) consisting of 3 cross-party elected members. The statutory guidance recommends a two-stage appeal process whereby a decision is first made by an officer. If the applicants wish to challenge the officer decision, the stage 1 review is undertaken by a senior officer. Following our new process, a stage 1 review would be undertaken by the ISEND Travel Panel, which already consists of senior officers. The stage 2 review is then reviewed by DTAP. These amended policies bring the Council processes in line with the recommendations in the statutory guidance.
· Allow verbal representations at stage 2 appeal hearings: The current Council policy states that it is not possible for parents/carers to attend appeal panel meetings in person. The revised policies will allow for applicants to request to provide verbal representations to the Appeal Panel in exceptional circumstances where a learner/parent/carer would face significant disadvantage in making their appeal without this. It will be possible for applicants to request to make verbal representations on the stage 2 appeal form and the request will be considered by the supporting officer. It is expected that the verbal representation will be made via a telephone call or video call for a fixed duration at the start of the Appeal Panel hearing.
1.6 While the policies were being reviewed, the opportunity was taken to review the wording and formatting of the whole documents. Additional minor amendments have been made to increase clarity, improve readability, and increase accessibility, for example when being read by a screen reader. There has been no material change to the substance of the policies apart from the two areas above.
1.7 The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities travel assistance policy for statutory-aged pupils will be presented for approval at the next Lead Member meeting. The changes to this policy, including those stated above, are still being finalised.
2. Conclusion and reasons for recommendations
2.1 The Lead Member is recommended to review and approve proposed amendments to the policies listed below which include an amended appeals process and other minor changes which assist with accessibility and readability.
· School transport policy
· 16 to 19 SEND travel assistance policy
· Post 19 SEND travel assistance policy
ALISON JEFFERY
Director of Children’s Services
Contact Officers:
Jo Miles (mainstream policy)
Tel. No. 01273 481911
Email: jo.miles@eastsussex.gov.uk
Alison Mills (SEND policies)
Tel. No: 01273 336670
Emails: alison.mills@eastsussex.gov.uk
Appendices
Appendix 1 - Revised School transport policy
Appendix 2 - Revised 16 to 19 SEND travel assistance policy
Appendix 3 - Revised Post-19 SEND travel assistance policy