Our Legal Rights Service provides families of children with brain conditions with help when facing difficulties accessing support services they are entitled to.
John Furlong, Information & Support Officer on our LEaP project explains how we recently helped Shona to appeal against her local authority’s decision not to provide school transport for her daughter.
“Shona, her husband and four children had been forced to move because their house had become uninhabitable. After moving to a series of temporary houses over a period of five months, the family was permanently re-housed by a housing association but didn’t get a choice about where to live. It was over 30 miles from their new home to her 14-year-old autistic daughter Grace’s school.
Shona applied for home to school transport and was turned down because the local authority said that Grace was not attending her nearest suitable school and that she had not applied for a place at that school. She was told that Grace’s school was a ‘parental preference’ and the local authority transport policy required parents to make their own arrangements. Shona had provided information about Grace’s autism but the local authority said the circumstances were not exceptional and did not warrant free home to school transport being provided.
Shona appealed the decision describing the likely effects on Grace’s mental health of moving to a new school and how it would negatively affect her academic progress because she had a need for things to remain the same. This was rejected. The local authority said that Grace did not meet the ‘standard’ eligibility criteria, that Shona had not provided enough evidence that Grace met the ‘exceptional circumstances’ test and that the nearest school was suitable for Grace to attend.
It was at this point that Shona asked us for help. We wrote a second appeal letter. We explained that it was for the local authority to make sure it had enough evidence to make a decision, not Shona. Shona had applied for a place at the nearest school but had been turned down because the school said it was full. The local authority had not found another school for Grace to attend, so there was no nearer suitable school.
We said Grace must be provided with transport because her school was outside the statutory walking distance of three miles. We also said that the legal test for providing discretionary transport was not that transport should be provided in ‘exceptional circumstances’ but ‘where necessary’, which is a lower threshold, so it had used the wrong test. The local authority had not properly considered all the relevant facts, which included Grace’s autism, nor the family’s housing situation. It had not considered its duties under the Equality Act 2010 nor considered the impact on Grace of her autism.
We said that transport should also be provided under its discretionary policy because she would struggle to cope in another school due to her autism and for academic reasons. We helped Shona gather together evidence from her school and medical reports that supported the appeal.
The local authority accepted the appeal and provided free home to school transport to Grace”.
Shona told us: “I’m so happy, I honestly cannot thank you enough for all of your help. Thank you so much.”
Resources for you
Our Accessing Public Services Toolkit supports children with brain conditions and their carers in accessing the health, social care and education support services they are entitled to.
Our template letters can help make it less daunting for you if you need to write to your local council, social services or health body.
You might also be interested in our Parent Guides and Factsheets on school transport:
