SEND transport changes: an apology, and information for families

Kent County Council is introducing changes to the transport arrangements for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) from the start of next week (Monday 21 February). These changes, which will affect routes, transport and travel with other children, reflect the rapid growth in SEND children requiring transport and a severe shortage of drivers.

However, the process of allocating transport to SEND children has taken longer than had originally been anticipated and a significant number of parents were not informed of their child’s new transport arrangements by the promised date of the end of term (last Friday, 11 February). This has, naturally, caused huge anxiety to these families. 

We recognise that this is an utterly unacceptable position for these families to be put in. Councillors and officers have sought this week to secure transport for many of the affected families, and communication has been through email and a dedicated phone line to seek to keep all parents as informed as possible as to the latest position and the arrangements for their child. KCC has also worked with Kent PACT (Parents and Carers Together, the forum for SEND families), who have sought to help and communicate with rightly distressed parents.

This KCC statement sets out the details of how parents can get more information and, quite rightly, apologises fully for the distress and anxiety that families have experienced. We will review in full how this happened, but the immediate priority is to resolve the uncertainty over transport for many SEND families.