School Transport

Many parents who have disabilities find it difficult to get their children to school. At the moment, only families who live beyond “walking distance” from their school (2 miles for under 8's, 3 miles for over 8's) are automatically given free transport, but Local Authorities and County Councils can give help to families who live within “walking distance”, if the family is in “special circumstances”. The government has said that this should include the children of disabled parents – here is what the government Ministers said on the subject:

Jacqui Smith (Minister of State - Schools and 14-19 Learners) in a written answer to Parliamentary question on 23 January 2006, said:

"Free home to school transport is a service that local authorities provide to parents of school pupils where they consider it 'necessary' to secure a child's attendance at school. Local authorities must consider transport necessary for all pupils of compulsory school age (including those with disabled parents), and who attend their nearest suitable school, provided that the school is beyond the statutory walking distance.

From December 2006, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, places a duty on the public sector to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people and to eliminate discrimination. This duty is anticipatory, meaning that public authorities will have to review all their policies, practices, procedures and services to make sure they do not discriminate against disabled people and ensure that all their services are planned with disabled people's needs fully considered in advance.

In the Department's view, this means that local authorities will be under a duty to amend their home to school transport policy if, for example, that policy relied on disabled parents accompanying their children along a walking route for it to be considered safe, and where the parents' disability prevented them from doing so. In such circumstances, a reasonable adjustment would be for the local authority to provide free home to school transport. The Department will publish guidance to this effect in advance of the duty coming into force."

Beverley Hughes (Minister of State - Children, Young People and Families) in a written answer on 23 January 2006, said:

"The Department has not issued any guidance to local authorities specifically in relation to supporting disabled parents with their responsibility to ensure the regular attendance of their children at school. We would expect, however, that where the attendance of individual pupils gives cause for concern, the local authority's education welfare service would work closely with the family to resolve any problems."