‘Disabled children are already systemically oppressed at all levels of society, at the very least we must mindfully refrain from actively disadvantaging marginalised children and families further.’

Local activist and campaigner Ruth Kettle Frisby is extremely concerned about the possible cuts to Havering Council’s transport system that allows children with special educational needs, to be driven to school each day and have the education they so rightly deserve.

Today, Ruth has shared with the Havering Daily, her letter to Cabinet Member Oscar Ford, in response to the possible cuts and impact it will have on so many children across the borough, that has left countless parents anxious and worried about their child’s future.

Dear Cllr Oscar Ford,

Every morning parents and carers like me in Havering say goodbye to their beloved children as they are assisted onto their school transport with great care and attention. From the moment I wheel my daughter to her minibus, I am reassured that she is receiving exemplary care by the wonderful Lee and Gill from our council’s trusted school transport service. 

Parents and carers like me are feeling the weight of uncertainty as to exactly how the proposed cuts to school transport in the borough will impact individual children and young people, and reading your recent comments in The Havering Daily (https://thehaveringdaily.co.uk/2023/10/11/havering-council-reviews-the-way-children-with-special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-travel-to-school/) about this has left us feeling anxious and incredulous. 

What follows are important questions in response to what I’m sorry to say feels like an unimaginative, uncreative reaction to financial pressure, with ableist implications. 

1. The council is facing a section 114 notice – bankruptcy – which must be inordinately burdensome. Cuts need to be made, and I appreciate that. But why target a necessary service for a marginalised group of only 600 children and young people out of over 77,500 in the borough?

2. As governor at Corbets Tey School, Jeff Stafford rightly pointed out to you recently that this fragmented approach to essential school transport ‘could have some serious safeguarding issues’. To what extent do you acknowledge the safeguarding concerns that accompany disabled children travelling in Ubers, for example?

3. You responded to Jeff Stafford’s interest in ‘the exact implications to our pupils and their families’ – given the disruptive impact on children this will have, and ‘the distress this would cause to our parents and carers’ – with an out of date report that was published in 2019(https://www.local.gov.uk/understanding-drivers-rising-demand-and-associated-costs-home-school-transport). What reasons do we have to suppose this report is fit for purpose currently, and will do justice to our children and what they need?

4. I’m curious as to what makes you think we need ‘flexibility’? From my perspective, what parents and carers need for the children in our care is not flexibility, but rather stability and consistency; a robust, reliable, joined-up system in which continuity of care is delivered with appropriate training, and our children’s safety and wellbeing is protected.

5. How much will the ‘assessment process’ cost, who’s doing the assessing and what qualities make them suitable for such a task? 

6. Is this a move to outsource the current contract to private companies? If so – and if the primary aim of this move is to cut costs – we simply will not get the current level of integrated assurance we need that care is being provided to the high standards we expect and deserve. Regardlessof what might be being recorded on paper by private companies, we have seen examples of systemic failure in refugee services, mental health services and more, putting marginalised people at greater risk of stigmatisation and harm.

7. You suggest carpooling, and offer ‘trusted friends’ as a possible way around this disruption to trusted provision. In addition to the glaring safeguarding concern, a lot of assumptions are being made here: What makes you think that people have trusted friends at all? Not least those who aren’t struggling with their own families during a cost of living crisis? But more to the point, why are disabled children expected to car-share, but non-disabled children are not? At present, regular car-sharing would represent a sizable cultural shift that would make this a much bigger request than is implied. The expectation on parents and carers to depend on the good will of others in more privileged situations is deeply disempowering and unjust. 

8. Have you considered that more vehicles on the road could lead to more pollution and parking needs?

9. There will be a consultation about this, but how meaningful will it actually be? When you think about it, it is unlikely that exhausted parents and carers giving 24 hour care to their loved ones will easily be able to access the time or energy for such a meeting, especially given the level of anxiety this is causing in so many of us already.

We need nondisabled people to understand that disruption to care services has a knock-on effect: to parents’ ability to work and to pay taxes; and to health, wellbeing and the subsequent pressures on the NHS. 

It takes loving attentiveness, openness, responsiveness, creativity and more to care for people. Investment in time, money, and training are some of the more basic conditions that are necessary to create integrated support networks for disabled children that can even begin to safeguard their rightsand opportunities. 

Ultimately, care is always primarily about people, not revenue. Disabled children are already systemically oppressed at all levels of society, including travel and education; at the very least we must mindfully refrain from actively disadvantaging marginalised children and families further.

https://thehaveringdaily.co.uk/?s=Council+reviews+the+way+children+

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