11. Provision of Travel Assistance

Provision of Travel Assistance

1. Where the Council is providing shared transport this will normally only be provided at the start and end of the school/college day.  You may have to wait for either the next shuttle bus or until the end of the school/college day to access homeward travel.

2. Any other journeys required will be your responsibility or that of your parents/carers - typical examples are given below (non exhaustive).

• Attendance at annual reviews or parental meetings; travel assistance will not be provided to enable parents to attend such meetings; 

• Educational trips; settings must notify the Local Authority of any changes to curriculum times to allow for adjustments to be made. Where additional costs are incurred by the Local Authority, such costs must be reimbursed by the setting; 

• Examinations; home to college travel assistance timings may be adjusted to enable early departure from school/college when young people are undertaking national examinations. However, to avoid unnecessary additional costs, it is expected that such journeys will be coordinated and settings may be asked to retain young people  for reasonable periods at school/college after examinations to enable this; 

• Work experience; travel assistance will not normally be provided to allow young people to attend work experience; 

• Induction days / observation days / taster days; travel assistance may be made available to enable young people to attend Induction (or similar) days at specialist settings in which the Local Authority is considering naming in the young person’s EHC plan; 

• Curriculum appointments; travel assistance will not be provided to enable parents to attend such meetings; 

• Doctors, dental or hospital appointments; travel assistance times will not be adjusted to enable young people to attend such appointments;

• Clinical, psychiatric or therapy appointments; travel assistance times will not be adjusted to enable young people to attend such appointments;

• Illness; travel assistance will not normally be provided to collect young people who are ill at their place of learning; 

• Any other similar circumstance.

Pick up and Drop off arrangements

3. Transport providers are authorised to make pick-ups and drop-offs at authorised points only. The authorised points will be those specified on the parental agreement letter (normally the home and educational establishment address, or in the case of central pick up points / bus journeys, an allocated pick up point or bus stop). 

4. Transport staff will assist you to board a vehicle by steadying you, but cannot lift a you into the vehicle. If you cannot board without such assistance, consideration must be given to whether you would be more able to travel in a crash-tested wheelchair or similar. It is unlikely that your  parent/carer would be allowed to lift you into the vehicle as most schools/colleges also operate a ‘no lifting’ policy which would cause you to be unable to exit the vehicle, or to board for the return journey. 

5. All young people must be handed over to a responsible adult at the authorised point. Drivers and Passenger Assistants are not permitted to leave young people with any person under the age of 16, or any person who is not an ‘authorised’ adult. Parents and carers are expected to bring you to the vehicle/drop-off point (whichever is applicable) in the morning and collect from the vehicle/drop-off point in the afternoon.

6. Where you are picked up or dropped-off at home, your parent/carer is responsible for accompanying you to and from their door to the vehicle. You or your parent or carer should keep a lookout for the vehicle’s arrival since the vehicle will not sound its horn. It is against the law to sound a horn from a stationary vehicle except when another road user poses a danger. In exceptional circumstances (for example, where you travel alone in a taxi with a passenger assistant) the passenger assistant may call at the door or telephone ahead, although this is at the discretion of the transport crew. Any variation to the usual procedure must be agreed with the controller.  

7. Your parents and carers must ensure that there are no delays in making you available for the journey (or collecting you in the evenings) as this is one of the main factors affecting total journey times and can have a detrimental effect on how other passengers manage the remainder of their journey. 

8. Parents are asked on the application form to provide two alternative addresses, to be used in the event they are unable to be present to meet you. Any changes to these addresses, whether permanent or temporary, must be communicated in writing to the Council’s Assisted Travel Team who will make the necessary arrangements. Until such communication is received, the only other authorised place will be the nearest place of safety; see below for details. 

Absence from place of learning

9. Where you cannot attend your place of learning on any particular day, for example due to illness, it is your or your parent /carer’s responsibility to contact the passenger assistant or transport company immediately. For longer term absences, you or your parent/carer should contact the Assisted Travel Team. 

10. If you are transported to your place of learning, you or your parent/carer should contact the transport company the night before travel if they know that you will be absent the following day, or as early as possible on the morning of travel if you only shows signs of being ill on the day you are due to travel. 

11. All transport which is not cancelled in advance of the vehicle arriving at the home address must be paid for by the Council whether or not you boards the vehicle. Where you or your parent/carer repeatedly fail to cancel the provision as a result of illness before it arrives at the home address, or where you decides not to travel in transport which has arrived on any given day, without any prior notice having been given to the transport company, your transport provision will be reviewed and may be removed. 

12. If it can be established that public funds are being used inappropriately, as a result of vehicles not being cancelled with enough prior warning, you may be excluded from transport for a period of time. Your parents will be responsible for transporting you during any period of exclusion from transport. 

Place of Safety

13. In the event that your parent or carer is unable to meet you at the specified drop off point at the agreed time, transport providers are instructed to take you to the nearest place of safety. Currently, this places of safety is:

Sutton Family Centre (for children and young people of all ages), Sutton West Centre, Robin Hood Lane, Sutton, SM1 2SD

Telephone: 020 8770 5739

Opening hours: Monday - Friday, 8.30am - 5.30pm

14. Outside these hours, if the transport provider is unable to contact the parent/s or secondary contact, the transport provider must contact the Emergency Duty Team (out of hours service) on 020 8770 5000. This is the same number of children, young people and young adults 19-25.

15. Parents, schools and the transport providers will receive instructions from the Council on what to do if the transport provider has to drop the young person off at a place of safety. Transport assistance may be withdrawn if this happens frequently. Parents or schools/colleges should contact the Assisted Travel Team if there are any emergency changes.  

Severe weather

16. Overall responsibility for the safe running of the transport service rests with the Assisted Travel Manager. However, it is expected that each transport provider and each school/college will assess local conditions and make decisions based on those conditions and their knowledge of the passengers involved. 

17. Where schools/colleges inform the Assisted Travel Team that the school/college will be closed, transport to that school/college will be cancelled. 

18. In cases of severe weather, where parents and carers are advised that transport has been cancelled for your morning journey, you should assume that transport will also be cancelled for the afternoon journey, unless advised otherwise. If parents or carers decide to take you to school/college despite the severe weather, they will also need to arrange to collect you after school/college. 

Medication on transport

19. As part of the service, we require that every driver and passenger assistant is able to respond to an emergency situation. 

20. There is no expectation that a young person’s routine medication will be administered on the journey to and from school, or that routine medical procedures will be carried out (for example, replacing gastrostomy or tracheostomy tubes). However, drivers and passenger assistants are expected to ensure the health and safety of all young people in their care. Drivers and passenger assistants will be first-aid trained. This includes: managing the symptoms of shock; dealing with an unconscious casualty; cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation; choking; and seizures. 

21. It may sometimes be necessary to administer a young person’s emergency medication where the young person has a known and pre-existing condition. Emergency medication should be administered in accordance with instructions from a health care professional. The driver or passenger assistant responsible for administering the medication should receive training from a healthcare professional.

22. If there is a medical or mental health emergency on a vehicle, when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk, the passenger assistant or driver should call 999. The call handler will decide whether an ambulance is appropriate. It may be safe enough for the patient to be seen elsewhere, or the staff can be given telephone advice by a medically trained clinical adviser. An ambulance will be sent if it's a life-threatening emergency.

23. Where it is assessed to be unsafe for a young person with complex or acute medical needs to travel with only a passenger assistant, the Council will seek to provide a medically-trained professional to accompany the young person on the vehicle. A risk assessment will be undertaken to ensure the correct level of medical support can be arranged.

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