Local authority reported to Ofsted over SEND transport in Bedfordshire
“Every single child has to be treated differently”
A local authority has been reported to Ofsted by one of its own councillors over safeguarding concerns relating to special educational needs students in Central Bedfordshire.
These issues followed changes to Central Bedfordshire Council’s home to school transport services for the autumn term, a meeting heard.
Speaking as a parent, Mark Tripp, who chairs the governing body of Ivel School and College in Biggleswade, described how some students were “at home on Monday morning, not knowing when and how, or even if they were being collected”, adding: “Despite this lack of communication, students were picked up.
“Their anxieties were high, but they managed it. Imagine their horror when they found out because of a CBC policy change there was only one pick-up at 4.30pm. When your course finishes at 12.30pm, there’s a four-hour wait to go home to their safe place.
“Messages were sent by CBC, but through a system we’d been told was no longer being used for contact.”
The council’s former deputy leader Hayley Whitaker contacted chief executive Marcel Coiffait and director of children’s services Amana Gordon a week ago, warning them of her intention to report the council to Ofsted.
And the Central Bedfordshire Community Network Biggleswade West councillor Whitaker made the report when safeguarding issues around transport arrangements appeared unresolved 24 hours later.
Whitaker told CBC’s children’s services overview and scrutiny committee: “Every single child has to be treated differently,” she explained. “That’s what failed here."