Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Children’s Services. To be presented by the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools, and Families.

Following public consultation, Cabinet approval is required to implement the Haringey School Travel Assistance Policy for home to school transport for children and young people with SEND.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools, and Families introduced the report which, following public consultation, sought Cabinet approval to implement the Haringey School Travel Assistance Policy for home to school transport for children and young people with SEND.

The Cabinet Member outlined that the suite of final draft policies set the framework and underpinned the Home to School travel for children and young people including those 16- 25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These had been developed over a significant period, following a review process which was initiated in 2019 but then delayed and suspended due to the pandemic. As soon as was possible, post-pandemic, an initial policy review was held with a group of key stakeholders, including special school representatives, a member of the Haringey Parent/Carer Forum and SEND officers.

The Cabinet Member reminded Cabinet that  the review had led to a set of draft policies and policy changes  that were brought to Cabinet on March 8, 2022, where it was agreed to proceed to a full public consultation. This ran from 9th May 2022- 31st July 2022. The proposed changes were now set out in para 4.3 of the report.

It was noted that the consultation was very extensive using as many avenues as possible to engage and communicate with partners, families and stakeholders.

In response to questions from Cllr Cawley-Harrison, the following information was provided:

• The policies put forward to Cabinet were lawful and in keeping with statutory duties. A point of clarification would be sought from legal services on the Dudley Legal case 2012 referred to which had successfully challenged eligibility criteria relating to the parental preferential choice for school and access to travel assistance. The Head of Legal and Governance further confirmed that a written response would be provided and if there was any issue this would be flagged but this report had been subject to legal advice.

• The impact of inflation was an evolving issue and would be part of the wider consideration of costs across Children’s services. This would be alongside the service considering competing demands and budgetary pressures. A more specific response would be provided, in writing, on the consideration of personal budgets as part of this policy.

• Regarding the sharing of consultation responses with parents, it was necessary to publish these in October instead of September to coincide with the publication of the report. Parents had made the service aware of the previous message on publishing consultation responses in September and an immediate notification was provided in the SEND local offer that this would occur in October.

• There was a commitment in the SEND newsletter and SEND local offer to take forward a Q&A session on the changes to the policies . The session would also be responding to the fact that there had not been as many consultation responses then would have been liked, despite extensive promotion. The SEND service recognised that the polices were also detailed and wanted to provide an easy to read document  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63